56 COMMON BEAVER. 



but they are not fond of dry wood, and make 

 occasional excursions during the winter season 

 for fresh provisions in the forests. It is in the 

 water, or near their habitations, that they estab- 

 lish their magazines. Each cabin has its own 

 magazine, proportioned to the number of its in- 

 habitants, who have all a common right to the 

 store, and never pillage their neighbours. Some 

 villages are composed of twenty or twenty-five 

 cabins, but such establishments are rare ; and the 

 common republic seldom exceeds ten or twelve 

 families, each of Adiich has its own quarter of the 

 village, its own magazine, and its separate habita- 

 tion. They allow not strangers to settle in their 

 neighbourhood. The smallest cabins contain two, 

 four, or six ; and the largest, eighteen, twenty, 

 and, it is alleged, sometimes thirty. Beavers. 

 They are almost always equally paired, there be- 

 ing the same number of females as of males. 

 Thus, upon a moderate computation, the society 

 is often composed of 150 or 2100, which all, at 

 first, laboured jointly, in raising the great public 

 building, and afterwards in select tribes or com- 

 panies, in making particular habitations. In this 

 society, however numerous, an universal peace is 

 maintained. Their union is cemented by com- 

 mon labours ; and it is rendered perpetual by mu- 

 tual convenience, and the abundance of provi- 

 sions which they amass and consume together. 

 Moderate appetites, a simple taste, an aversion 

 against blood and carnage, deprive them of the 

 idea of rapine and war. They enjoy every pos- 



