THE BE A VER. 49 



measures some eight or ten feet thick at the base, 

 and. about two feet at the top. 



" The house which they have buUt for themselves is 

 constructed of similar materials, and presents a 

 dome-shaped, top of about ten feet in diameter, 

 rising some two or three feet above the water. 

 There are two entrances or doors to the house, both 

 being at the bottom of the water, and an air-hole or 

 ventilator is left at the top, protected with sticks or 

 logs. 



" In addition to the house, they have constructed 

 several burrows, which, entering the ground under 

 water, run into the bank for three or four yards, and 

 are provided with a ventilator similar to that in the 

 house. 



"The largest pond, that in which the house is 

 placed, is about thirty yards long by ten or twelve 

 yards wide at the widest, the dam inclosing a little 

 bay or inlet at one end, thus accounting for its extra 

 length. 



"It is very wonderful to observe the manner in 

 which these little workmen fell trees (some of them 

 upwards of two feet in diameter), and almost in- 

 variably bring them down so as to fall directly 

 towards the water, thus giving them a shorter 

 distance to drag the bark and branches when lopped 

 off; and it is only when a tree, being nearly cut 

 through at the base, succumbs in a storm coming 

 from a wrong direction, or when, as it occasionally 

 happens, they themselves wish it otherwise, that 

 they fail to bring the trees down directly towards 



