AMERICAN BEAVER. 335 



all the articles they are of necessity obliged to purchase in the " Indian 

 country," cost them large sums, as their price is greatly increased by 

 the necessary charges for transportation to the remote regions of the 

 West. 



When at Fort Union, we saw a trapper who had just returned from an 

 unfortunate expedition to the mountains ; his two horses had been stolen, 

 and he lost his gun and rifle in coming down the river in a slender canoe, 

 and was obliged to make for the shore, dig a hole wherein to deposit the 

 few furs he had left, and travel several hundred miles on foot with only 

 berries and roots for his food. He was quite naked when he reached 

 the Fort. 



The Beaver which we brought from Boston to New York was fed prin- 

 cipally on potatoes and apples, which he contrived to peel as if assisted 

 with a knife, although his lower incisors were his only substitute for that 

 useful implement. While at this occupation the animal was seated on 

 his rump, in the manner of a ground-hog, marmot, or squirrel, and looked 

 like a very large wood-chuck, using his fore-feet, as squirrels and mar- 

 mots are wont to do. 



This Beaver was supplied every day with a large basin filled with 

 water, and every morning his ordure was found to have been deposited 

 therein. He generally slept on a good bed of straw in his cage, but one 

 night having been taken out and placed at the back of the yard in a 

 place where we thought he would be secure, we found next morning to 

 our surprise that he had gnawed a large hole through a stout pine door 

 which separated him from that part of the yard nearest the house, and 

 had wandered about until he fell into the space excavated and walled 

 up outside the kitchen window. Here he was quite entrapped, and 

 having no other chance of escape from this pit, into which he had un- 

 luckily fallen, he gnawed away at the window-sill and the sash, on 

 which his teeth took such effect that on an examination of the 

 premises we found that a carpenter and several dollars' worth of work 

 were needed, to repair damages. When turned loose in the yard in the 

 day-time he would at times slap his tail twice or thrice on the brick 

 pavement, after which he elevated this member from the ground, and 

 walked about in an extremely awkward manner. He fell ill soon after 

 we had received him, and when killed, was examined by Dr. James 

 Teude.'^u, who found that he would shortly have died of an organic 

 disease. 



It is stated by some authors that the Beaver feeds on fish. We doubt 

 whether he possesses this habit, as we on several occasions placed fish 

 before those we saw in captivity, and although they were not very 



