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the beaver. 
Captain Franklin relates that, one day, a gen' < 
tleman, long resident in the Hudson’s Bay 
country, espied five young beavers sporting i'^ 
the water, leaping upon the trunk of a tree, 
pushing one another olfi and playing a thoU' 
sand antics. He approached softly, under '* 
cover of the bushes, and prepared to fire, but, j 
on a nearer approach, he was so struck with 
the similitude between their gestures and th® 
infantine sports of his own children, that h® 
dropped his gun and left them unmolested. 
The motions of the beavers on land, are ver)' 
slow. Though possessing teeth so sharp and 
strong as to be capable of a stout resistance, 
they are easily killed, being so timid, that if i 
they happen to meet a man they will squui' 
down and cry like a child. 
The beaver may be completely domesticated- 
Major Roderfort, of New York, informed Pro- 
fessor Kalm, that he had a tame beaver above 
half a year in his house, where he went about 
