( i6© ) 



have lefs way to drag it, after cutting it into pro- 

 per lengths. They have afterwards only to roli 

 thofe pieces fo cut towards the water, where, after, 

 they have been launched, they navigate them to- 

 wards the place where they are to be employed. 



Thefe pieces are more or lefs thick or long, ac- 

 cording as the nature and fituation of the place re- 

 quire, for thefe architects forefee every thing. Some- 

 times they make ufe of the trunks of great trees, 

 which they place in a flat direction ; fometimes the 

 caufeway confifts of piles nearly as thick as one's 

 thigh, fupported by flrong flakes, and interwoven 

 with fmall branches ; and every where the vacant 

 fpaces are filled with a fat earth fo well applied, that 

 not a drop of water pafTes through. The beavers 

 prepare this earth with their feet ; and their tail not 

 only ferves inflead of a trowel for building but 

 alfo ferves them inflead of a wheelbarrow for tranf- 

 porting this mortar, which is performed by trailing 

 themfelves along on their hinder feet. When they 

 have arrived at the water- fide, they take it up with 

 their teeth, and apply it firfb with their feet, and then 

 plaifter it with their tail. The foundations of thefe 

 dykes are commonly ten or twelve feet thick, di- 

 minifhing always upward, till at laft they come to 

 two or three ; the ftriclelt proportion is always ex- 

 actly obferved ; the rule and the compafs are in the 

 eye of the great mafler of arts and fciences. Laftly, 

 it has been obferved, that the fide towards the cur- 

 rent of the water is always made Hoping, and the 

 other fide quite upright. In a word, it would be 

 difficult for our beft workmen to build any thing 

 either more folid or more regular. 



The conflrudtion of the cabins is no lefs won- 

 derful. Thefe are generally built on piles in the 



mid- 



