404 MISCELLANEOUS WONDERS OF NATUB*' 
stakes. While some are labouring in tliis 
bring earth, which they plash with their 
transport in such quantities, that they fill with * 
the piles. These piles t*’'^ 
tervals between lug |juc&. xucsc pnes .. 
rows of stakes, ot equal height, all placed opP^ 
other, and extend from one bank of the rivef 
The stakes facing the under part of the river at'*' 
pendicularly ; but the rest of the work slopes ^ 
sustain the pressure of the fluid, so that the O'’ 
reduced'" 
ten or twelve feet wide at the base, is 
three at the top. 
The first great Uructurc is made with 
their small habitations more cormnodious. Th^® 
houses, are built on piles near the margin of ^ ,ii>' 
have two openings, the one for going on the ^ J’ ’jn’"/ 
ntlipr tn tn tKrnttr 1 HrIDSCA , 
|l>' 
otlier to enable the beavers to throw thenisc- 
water. The form of these edifices is either 
and their dimensions vary from four or five to c a j,f 
feet diameter. Some of them consist ot ..iset^jV 
_* J .,. 1 . 11 ^ . s. ** . qyl 
stories, and tlieir walls are about two feet thick) j,oi» 
pendicularly on planks, or plain stakes, which 
foundations and floors. They are built 
solidity, neatly plastered both without and with' 
teble to raiiij and capable of resisting the 
winds. The partitions are covered with a 
as mcely plastered as it it had been executed hf .j^ ji;r'> 
man. In Lire a])plicalion of this morlar their 
trowels, and their feet for plastering. 
plasieiujg. -. ^ 
different materials, as wood, stone, and a k'h 
eartli, which is not subject to dissolution in pf * 
These most interesting animals labour in a sit 
and, besides the convenience of this 
pleasure of gnawing perpetually the w'ood 
trees, substances most agreeable to their taste ; [ at .pK 
fer fresh bark and lender wood to the greater^P j.,' 
ordinary aliment. Of these provisions the/ 
\* 
stores to support them during the winter ; ‘ik'j 
fond of dry wood, and make occasional excu' 
the winter sea.son for frc,sh provisions in the 
establish their magazines in the water, or neat 
tions j and each cabin has its own. 
a 
ioh«' 
uo uwii, Jji 
number of its inhabitants, who have all a con 
lOh 
Pi> 
