MUSK BEAVER. 
in the upper, two shorter: these four teeth are 
very strong, and serve the animal for gnawing 
and cutting wood. As this animal belongs to 
the same country with the Beaver ; dwells on 
the water; and has nearly the same figure, 
colour, and fur ; they have often been com- 
pared to each other. It is even asserted, that a 
full-grown Musk Rat, at first sight, may be 
mistaken for a Beaver of a month old. They 
differ greatly, however, in the form of the 
tail : which, in the Beaver, is oval, and fiat 
horizontally; but, in the Musk Rat, it is very 
long, and flat or compressed veitically. Be- 
sides, these animals have a great reserabkncc 
in their dispositions and instincts. The Musk 
Rats, like the Beavers, live in society during tlie 
winter. They make little huts, about two feer 
and a half in diameter, and sometimes larger, 
where several families associate to2:ether. 
is not the object of tliis operation, like that ov 
the Marmots, to sleep during five or six 
months, but solely to shelter them from the 
rigour of the air. These houses, or huts, are 
round, and covered with a dome about a foot 
thick. Their materia,ls are herbs and* rushes 
interwoven, and cemented with earth, wl-3lci-j 
they 
