APPENDIX. 



223 



ants, which seldom exceed four old, and six or eight young ones ; 

 though, by chance, I have seen above double that number. 



These houses, though not altogether unworthy of admiration, 

 fall very short of the general description given of them ; for instead 

 of order or regulation being observed in rearing them, they are of a 

 much ruder structure than their dams. 



Those who have undertaken to describe the inside of beaver- 

 houses, as having several apartments appropriated to various uses ; 

 such as eating, sleeping, store-houses for provisions, and one for 

 their natural occasions, &c. , must have been very little acquainted 

 with the subject ; or, which is still worse, guilty of attempting to 

 impose on the credulous, by representing the greatest falsehoods as 

 real facts. Many years constant residence among the Indians, dur- 

 ing which I had an opportunity of seeing several hundreds of those 

 houses, has enabled me to affirm that every thing of the kind is 

 entirely void of truth ; for, notwithstanding the sagacity of those 

 animals, it has never been observed that they aim at any other con- 

 veniences in their houses, than to have a dry place to lie on ; and 

 there they usually eat their victuals, which they occasionally take 

 out of the water. 



It frequently happens, that some of the large houses are found to 

 have one or more partitions, if they deserve that appellation ; but 

 that is no more than a part of the main building, left by the sagacity 

 of the beaver to support the roof. On such occasions it is common 

 for those different apartments, as some are pleased to call them, 

 to have no communication with each other but by water ; so that in 

 fact they may be called double or treble houses, rather than different 

 apartments of the same house. I have seen a large beaver-house 

 built in a small island, that had near a dozen apartments under one 

 roof : and, two or three of these only excepted, none of them had 

 any communication with each other but by water. As there were 

 beaver enough to inhabit each apartment, it is more than probable 

 that each family knew its own, and always entered at their own 

 door, without having any further connection with their neighbours 



