OK, PLAIN 



chisel of ail work. There is one property in the 

 chisel of the beaver, however, which no art of 

 man can give to the chisel of the carpenter ; 

 the incisive, or chisel-teeth, in the beaver have 

 not roots consisting wholly of hone, as in the 

 case of most animals, and as in the grinders of 

 the beaver itself, they are inserted deeply in 

 the jaws, but they are inserted in a peculiar 

 kind of socket, a socket which exists only 

 during dentition in other teeth. /These sockets 

 continue gradually to produce the tooth in such 

 a manner as that both bone and enamel grow at 

 the root as fast as they are worn down at the 

 point, and consequently those chisel-teeth re- 

 main in good condition during the whole jife of 

 the animal. Their chisel edges are directly 

 opposed to each other, so that when the animal 

 bites it bites clear, just m the same manner as a 

 workman cuts a wire or other small piece of 

 metal, with his cutting pincers.* 



The animal, thus furnished 

 with an effective tool, applies it 

 not only for purposes of susten- 

 tation, but constructs houses, 2, 

 which are inhabited by separate 

 families, and grouped into little 

 toivns or colonies. Their food 

 consists of the large root of a 

 water lily. They accordingly 

 erect their houses on little islands 

 in the neighbourhoods where 

 these roots may be found. In 

 order to protect their houses 

 from injury by water, they con- 

 struct dams, 3, which they also 

 do, in certain instances, to pre- 

 vent the water running off, and 

 leaving the ground so dry as to 

 prevent them obtaining the roots 

 upon which they live. 



The houses are built of bits of wood and mud ; 

 and one house is generally occupied by four old 

 and six or eight young ones. " I have seen," 

 says Mr. Hearne, "a large beaver-house 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 beavers enough to 

 inhabit each department, it is more than pro- 

 bable that each family knew their own, and al- 

 ways entered at their own doors, without any 

 further connection with their neighbours than a 

 friendly intercourse, and to join their united 

 labours in erecting their separate habitations, 

 and building their dams where required." 



In building their houses they 

 make the inner walls smooth, by 



* Partington's British Cyclopaedia. 



TEACHING. 179 



biting off any ends of wood 

 that may project. They cover 

 the outside of the walls every 

 autumn with fresh mud. In 

 summer they vary their diet, by 

 eating various kinds of herbage, 

 and such berries as grow near 

 their haunts. In the spring 

 they rove about until a little 

 before the fall of the leaf, when 

 they return again to their old 

 habitations, and lay in their 

 winter stock of food. 



The American beaver is pursued both for its 

 fur, and for the sake of a peculiar odoriferous 

 secretion, termed castor, which is contained in 

 two little glands, each about the size of a hen's 

 egg. This substance, as we find it in the shops, 

 is of a brownish unctuous consistence, has a dis- 

 agreeable narcotic smell, and a nauseous acrid 

 taste : it was at one time esteemed as possessing 

 considerable medicinal properties, but is now 

 chiefly employed by perfumers. Beaver fur was 

 formerly a most important article of commerce ; 

 but the animals have in recent times been exter- 

 minated from so many extensive tracts which 

 they once inhabited, that it is now far less con- 

 siderable than |t was half a century ago. To 

 this may be added, that the present custom of 

 using silk and other materials in lieu of beaver's 

 fur in the manufacture of hats, has wonderfully 

 lessened the demand for it, as well as reduced 

 the price. An idea, however, may be formed of 

 the astonishing number of beavers' 1 skins that 

 were once made use of, when we state that 

 in 1808 no less than 126,927 were sent from 

 Quebec alone to this country. The flesh of the 

 beaver is much prized by the Indians and Cana- 

 dian voyagers, especially when roasted in the 

 skin after the hair has been singed off ; and in 

 some districts it requires all the influence of the 

 fur-traders to restrain the hunters from sacri- 

 ficing a considerable quantity of bearer fur every 

 year to secure the enjoyment of this luxury ; 

 and Indians of note have generally one or two 

 feasts in a season, wherein roasted beavers are 

 the prime dish. It resembles pork in flavour, 

 but requires a strong stomach to sustain a full 

 meal of it.* 



Edentata — g. 



The edentata are characterized 

 by the absence of those front 

 teeth, which in the rodentia are 

 so conspicuous. The name, which 

 signifies toothless, is not altogether 

 appropriate, since the greater 



* Maunder's Treasury of Natural Hiaiury. 



