SAMUEL HEARNE'S ACCOUNT OF THE BEAVER. 



The beaver being so plentiful, the attention of my companions 

 was chiefly engaged on them, as they not only furnished delicious 

 food, but their skins proved a valuable acquisition, being a princi- 

 pal article of trade, as well as a serviceable one for clothing, &c. 



The situation of the beaver-houses is various. Where the beavers 

 are numerous they are found to inhabit lakes, ponds, and rivers, 

 as well as those narrow creeks which connect the numerous lakes 

 with which this country abounds ; but the two latter are generally 

 chosen by them when the depth of water and other circumstances 

 are suitable, as they have then the advantage of a current to con- 

 vey wood and other necessaries to their habitations, and because, in 

 general, they are more difficult to be taken, than those that are built 

 in standing water. 



There is no one particular part of a lake, pond, river, or creek, 

 of which the beavers make choice for building their houses on, in 

 preference to another ; for they sometimes build on points, some- 

 times in the hollow of a bay, and often on small islands ; they 

 always chuse, however, those parts that have such a depth of 

 water as will resist the frost in Winter, and prevent it from freezing 

 to the bottom. 



The beaver that build their houses in small rivers or creeks, in 

 which the water is liable to be drained off when the back supplies 

 are dried up by the frost, are wonderfully taught by instinct to pro- 

 vide against that evil, by making a dam quite across the river, at a 

 convenient distance from their houses. This I look upon as the 

 most curious piece of workmanship that is performed by the beaver ; 

 not so much for the neatness of the work, as for its strength and 



