BEAVER. 
The neck is thick, and short ; and the body 
strongly made, and highly arched in the back. 
The feet have five toes each; and the fore-feet, 
which are small, have the toes divided; while 
the hind-feet are not only large, but connected 
by a web or membrane. The body is covered 
with two coats of fur: one of which is 
very soft, downy, and of an ash-colour; the 
other, long, coarse, and of a chesnut-brcwn, 
which is the common colour of the animal. 
The colour, however, greatly varies, in dif- 
ferent parts of the world: being darker, in ge- 
neral, as we go farther north; so as, some- 
times, to be found entirely black, which is con- 
sidered as the most valuable fur. Not unfre- 
quentty, the colour is uniformly white ; and 
sometimes it is white, spotted with ash-colour, 
or interspersed with reddish hairs > 
In Cart wright's Journal on the Coast of La- 
bradore, he remarks that, as all the accounts 
which he has read of Beavers are very erro- 
neous, he will communicate his observations 
on those animals. It is true that he sets out 
rather inauspiciously, by charging Buffon with 
having said, that " a Beaver has a scaly tail, 
because he eats fish;" pertinaciously adding, 
" I wonder 
