176 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



convenient for all the requirements of his calling, why 

 does he live where he can not get to his cabin with- 

 out swimming or using a canoe ? He would, by 

 building on shore, save himseK the severe labor of 

 moving the heavy piles on which his house is built, 

 and of planting them firmly in their places imder the 

 water, which, it may be assumed, is no light task. Is 

 it to secure a refuge against enemies or wild beasts ? 

 Doubtless it may have been so among the ancient 

 people who first biiilt in this way amid the cold 

 rocks of Alpine solitude ; but the Maracaybo fish- 

 erman seeks to escape other foes that render the 

 shores of the lake quite uninhabitable. These are the 

 mosquitoes, that are perhaps in no country in the 

 world so formidable in numbers, so bloodthirsty, and 

 so venomous. 



Such insects, although produced in wet and marshy 

 places, do not fly far from the land, and the lake- 

 dweller of Yenezuela will tell you, if you ask him the 

 reason for his building his dwelling so far out over 

 the water, " It is simply to escape from the plaga de 

 moscas " — the plague of flies. 



In comparing the habitations of these human lake- 

 dwellers with the houses of beavers, we miist confess 

 that in some respects the beaver's house is more in- 

 geniously contrived. In the first place, it is built of 

 such material and in such a way that mere natural 

 decay can never destroy its usefulness ; in the next, it 

 is so built that it is never likely to be blown down or 

 destroyed by sudden storms ; again, it is more secure 

 from attack, the door being under the water, where it 



