( 1 62 ) 



been conftantly remarked, that thefe piles are more 

 or lefs large, according as the winter is to be lon- 

 ger or fhorter, which ferves as an Almanack to the 

 Indians, who are never miftaken with refpect to the 

 duration of the cold. The beavers before they eat 

 the wood, cut it into fmall (lender pieces, and carry 

 it into their apartment j each cabin having only one 

 ftore-room for the whole family. 



When the melting of the fnow is at its greater!: 

 height as it never fails to occafion great inundations,, 

 the beavers quit their cabins which are no longer 

 habitable, every one fhifting for himfelf as well as 

 he can. The females return thither as foon as the 

 waters are fallen, and it is then they bring forth 

 their young. The males keep abroad till towards 

 the month of July, when they re-aflemble, in or- 

 der to repair the breaches which the fwelling of the 

 waters may have made in their cabbins or dykes. In 

 cafe thefe have been deftroyed by the hunters, or pro- 

 vided they are not worth the trouble of repairing 

 them, they fet about building of others ; but they 

 are often obliged to change the place of their abode, 

 and that for many reafons. The moft common is 

 for want of provifions they are alfo driven out by 

 the hunters, or by carnivorous animals, againft 

 whom they have no other defence than flight alone. 

 One might reafonably wonder, that the author of 

 nature Ihould have given a lefs mare of ftrength to 

 the moft part of ufeful animals than to fuch as are 

 not fo ; if this very thing did not make a brighter 

 difplay of his power and wifdom, in caufing the 

 former, notwithftanding their weaknefs to multiply 

 much fafter than the latter. 



There are places to which the beavers feem to 

 have fo ftrong a liking that they can never leave 



them 



