APPBNDIX. 225 



There cannot be a greater imposition, or indeed a grosser insult, 

 on common understanding, than the wish to make us beUeve the 

 stories of some of the works ascribed to the beaver ; and though it 

 is not to be supposed that the compiler of a general work can be in- 

 timately acquainted with every subject of which it may be necessary 

 to treat, yet a very moderate share of understanding is surely suffi- 

 cient to guard him against giving credit to such marvellous tales, 

 however smoothly they may be told, or however boldly they may be 

 asserted, by the romancing traveller. 



To deny that the beaver is possessed of a very considerable de- 

 gree of sagacity, would be as absurd in me, as it is in those Authors 

 who think they cannot allow them too much. I shall willingly 

 grant them their full share ; but it is impossible for any one to con- 

 ceive how, or by what means, a beaver, whose full height when 

 standing erect does not exceed two feet and a half, or three feet at 

 most, and whose fore-paws are not much larger than a half-crown 

 piece, can " drive stakes as thick as a man's leg into the ground 

 "three or four feet deep." Their "wattling those stakes with 

 ' ' twigs, ' ' is equally absurd ; and their ' ' plastering the inside of 

 ' ' their houses with a composition of mud and straw, and swimming 

 "with mud and stones on their tails," are still more incredible. 

 The form and size of the animal, notwithstanding all its sagacity, will 

 not admit of its performing such feats ; and it would be as impossible 

 for a beaver to use its tail as a trowel, except on the surface of the 

 ground on which it walks, as it would have been for Sir James 

 Thornhill to have painted the dome of St. Paul's cathedral without 

 the assistance of scaffolding. The joints of their tail will not admit 

 of their turning it over their backs on any occasion whatever, as it 

 has a natural inclination to bend downwards ; and it is not without 

 some considerable exertion that they can keep it from trailing on the 

 ground. This being the case, they cannot sit erect like a squirrel, 

 which is their common posture : particularly when eating, or when 

 they are cleaning themselves, as a cat or squirrel does, without hav- 

 ing their tails bent forward between their legs ; and which may not 

 improperly be called their trencher. 



