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reum, but fomewhat weaker and more difagreeable. 

 It thickens as it grows older, and takes the confif- 

 tence of tallow. This liquor is a refolvent, and a 

 fortifier of the nerves, for which purpofe it muft 

 be applied upon the part. It is befides a folly to 

 fay with fome authors on the faith of the antient 

 naturalifts, that when the beaver finds himfelf pur- 

 fued, to fave his life he bites off thefe pretended tef- 

 ticles which he abandons to the hunters. It is his 

 fur he ought then to ftrip himfelf of, in compari- 

 fon of which all the reft is of little value. It is, 

 ; however, owing to this fable that this animal got 

 the name of Caftor. Its fkin, after being ftript of 

 the fur, is , not to be neglected ; of it are made gloves 

 and (lockings, as might feveral other things, but it 

 being difficult to take off all the fur without cutting 

 it they make ufe of the fkin of the land beaver. 



You have, perhaps, heard of green and dry 

 beaver, and you may alfo be defirous to know the 

 difference which is this. The dry beaver is its 

 fkin before it has been employed in any ufe : the 

 green beaver are fuch as have been worn by the In- 

 dians, who, after having well tawed them on the 

 infide, and rubbed them with the marrow of certain 

 animals, with which I am not acquainted, in order 

 to render them mere pliant, few feveral of them to- 

 gether, making a fort of garment, which they call 

 a robe, and in which they wrap themfelves with the 

 fur inwards. They never put it off in winter, day 

 nor night the long hair foon falls off, the down 

 remaining and becoming more oily, in which con- 

 dition it is much fitter to be worked up by the hat- 

 ters ; who cannot make any ufe of the dry, with- 

 out a mixture of this fat fur along with it. They 

 pretend it ought to have been worn from fifteen to 

 eighteen months to be in its perfection, I leave you 



to 



