GNAWING PROPENSITIES, 269 
the beavers now and then cut off the foot by 
which they are held, in order to make their es 
cape. 
The beaver which we brought from Boston to 
New York was fed principally 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 
marmots are wont to do. 
This beaver 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 se- 
parated, 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 kitenen window. Here he was quite en- 
trapped, and having no other chance of escape 
from this pit, into which he had unluckily 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 car- 
penter and several dollars’ worth of work were 
23* 
