OF NATURAL HISTORY. 313 



rolled up In the form of a ball, and covered with hay. In this ftate, 

 they are fo torpid that they may be killed without feeming to feel 

 pain. The hunters feledl the fatteft for eating, and keep the young 

 ones for taming. Like the dormice, and all the other animals which 

 fleep during winter, the marmots are revived by a gradual and gen- 

 tle heat : And it is remarkable, that thofe which are fed in houfes, 

 and kept warm, never become torpid, but are equally adive and 

 lively during the whole year. 



We fliall now give a fhort account of the operations and archi- 

 tedture of the beaver. This amphibious quadruped is about three 

 feet in length, and its tail, which is of an oval figure, and covered 

 with fcales, is eleven inches long. He ufes his tail as a rudder to 

 dired his courfe in the water. In places much frequented by man, 

 the beavers neither affbciate nor build habitations. But, in the nor- 

 tliern regions of both Continents, they aflemble in the month of 

 June or July, for the purpofes of uniting into fociety and of build- 

 ing a city. From all quarters they arrive in numbers, and foon 

 form a troop of two or three hundred. The operations and archi- 

 tedhire of the beavers are fo well defcribed by the Count de Bufibn, 

 that we fliall lay it before our readers nearly in his own words. The 

 place of rendezvous, he remarks, is generally the fituation fixed up- 

 on for their eftablifliment, and it is always on the banks of waters. 

 If the waters be flat, and feldom rife above their ordinary level, as 

 in lakes, the beavers make no bank or dam. But in rivers or brooks, 

 where the water is fubjed to rifings and fallings, they build a bank, 

 which traverfes the river from one fide to the other, like a fluice, 

 and is often from So to 100 feet long, by 10 or 12 broad at the 

 bafe. This pile, for animals of fo fmall a fize, appears to be enor- 

 mous, and prefuppofes an incredible labour *. But the folidity with 

 t R r which 



* The largeft beavers .vsreigh only 50 or 60 pounds. 



