226 APPENDIX. 



So far are the beaver from driving stakes into the ground when 

 building their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, and 

 nearly horizontal, and without any other order than that of leaving 

 a hollow or cavity in the middle ; when any unnecessary branches 

 project inward, they cut them off with their teeth, and throw them 

 in among the rest, to prevent the mud from falling through the 

 roof. It is a mistaken notion, that the wood-work is first completed 

 and then plaistered ; for the whole of their houses, as well as their 

 dams, are from the foundation one mass of wood and mud, mixed 

 with stones, if they can be procured. The mud is always taken from 

 the edge of the bank, or the bottom of the creek or pond, near the 

 door of the house ; and though their fore-paws are so small, yet it is 

 held so close up between them, under their throat, that they carry both 

 mud and stones ; while they always drag the wood with their teeth. 



All their work is executed in the night ; and they are so expedi- 

 tious in completing it, that in the course of one night I have known 

 them to have collected as much mud at their houses as to have 

 amounted to some thousands of their little handfuls ; and when any 

 mixture of grass or straw has appeared in it, it has been, most as- 

 suredly, mere chance, owing to the nature of the ground from which 

 they had taken it. As to their designedly making a composition 

 for that purpose, it is entirely void of truth. 



It is a great piece of policy in those animals, to cover, or plaister, 

 as it is usually called, the outside of their houses every fall with 

 fresh mud, and as late as possible in the Autumn, even when the 

 frost becomes pretty severe ; as by this means it soon freezes as hard 

 as a stone, and prevents their common enemy, the quiquehatch, from 

 disturbing them during the "Winter. And as they are frequently 

 seen to walk over their work, and sometimes to give a flap with their 

 tail, particularly when plunging into the water, this has, without 

 doubt, given rise to the vulgar opinion that they use their tails as a 

 trowel, with which they plaister their houses ; whereas that flapping 

 of the tail is no more than a custom, which they always preserve, 

 even when they become tame and domestic, and more particularly 

 so when they are startled. 



