COMMON BEAVER. 37 



sible good^ while man only knows how to pant 

 after it. Friends to each other, if they have some 

 foreign enemies, they knoAV how to avoid them. 

 When danger approaches, they advertise one 

 another by striking their tail on the surface of 

 the water, the noise of which is heard at a great 

 distance, and resounds through all the vaults of 

 their habitations. Each takes his part ; some 

 plunge into the lake, others conceal themselves 

 within their walls, which can only be penetrated 

 by the fire of Heaven or the steel of man, and 

 which no animal will attempt either to open or 

 overturn. These retreats are not only very safe, 

 but neat and commodious. The floors are spread 

 over with verdure : the branches of the box and 

 the fir serve them for carpets, upon which they 

 permit not the least dirtiness. The window that 

 faces the water answers for a balcony to receive 

 the fresh air, and to bathe. During the greatest 

 part of the day they sit on end, with their head 

 and anterior parts of the body elevated, and their 

 posterior parts immersed in the water. This win- 

 dow is made with caution, the aperture being suf- 

 ficiently raised to prevent its being stopped up 

 with the ice, which, in the climates inhabited by 

 the Beaver, is often two or three feet thick. 

 When this happens, they slope the window, cut 

 obliquely the stakes which support it, and thus 

 open a communication with the unfrozen water. 

 This element is so necessary, or rather so agree- 

 able, to them, that they can seldom dispense with 

 it. They often swim along way under the ice; 



