MVSK BEAVER, 
they plash with their feet. They are impene- 
trahle to rain ; and are furnished with steps, in 
the inside, to prevent their being injured by 
inundations from the land. These huts, which 
serve the animals for a retreat, are covered, 
during winter, with several feet of snow and 
ice, without incommoding them. They lay 
not up provisions, like the Beaver; but dig a 
kind of pits, of passages, under and round their 
habitations, to give them an opportunity of 
procuring water and roots. Though thus as- 
sociated, they pass the winter in melancholy; 
for, it is not the season of their amours. 
During all this period, they are deprived of 
light; and, when the gentle breezes of the 
spring begin to dissolve the snow, and to disco- 
ver the tops of their habitations, the hunters 
open the dome, suddenly dazzle them with the 
light, and kill or seize all those which have not 
had time to retire to their subterranean gal- 
leries : into which they are still followed ; for 
their skin is valuable, and their flesh makes 
tolerable good eating. Such as escape the vi- 
gilance of the hunter, quit their habitations at 
this tiiTie. They wander about during suin- 
mer; but always in pairs, because it is the sea^ 
son 
