160 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
simple, and easily procured. His enemies, man ex- 
cepted, are few and rarely of a formidable description ; 
but if surprised by danger, he is quite unable to evade 
it by the exercise of cunning or sagacity, and his only 
hope of safety is in flight. It has been said that he 
is docile in captivity, and may be easily rendered 
obedient to the commands of his keeper ; but it w^ould 
appear that his docility is limited to a patient endur- 
ance of his condition, and his obedience to a simple 
recognition of those who take care of him, and whom 
he may be taught to follow from place to place. 
His peculiar conformation renders the Beaver what 
is commonly, although improperly, termed an amphi- 
bious animal, the greater part of his existence being 
passed in the water, in which he swims and dives with 
great dexterity. It is for this reason that he always 
selects for his dwelling-place the banks of rivers or of 
lakes. Here he lives secluded during the summer in 
holes which he burrows in the earth, and which he 
quits only in search of his food and to indulge himself 
with bathing. But as the autumn advances he begins 
to look out for society, and to prepare against the 
rigours and the dearth of winter. With this view he 
associates himself with a band of his fellows, sometimes 
amounting in number to two or three hundred ; and 
the whole body immediately set to work either to 
repair their old habitations, or, if they have been 
compelled to desert their former place of abode, to 
construct new ones on the same plan. 
The mode by which this is accomplished has been so 
repeatedly described by French and English travellers 
in the northern parts of America that it might seem 
almost superfluous to enter into any details upon such 
a subject, were we not well assured that many of the 
facts vouched for in their relations, and most of the 
