IS COMMON BEAVER* 
voir dry, they have recourse to a clay, which they 
know where to find, and with which they stop up 
all the cavities both within and without, so that 
the water is duly confined. They continue to 
raise the dike in proportion to the elevation of the 
water, and the plenty which they have of it. They 
are conscious, likewise, that the conveyance of 
their materials by land would not be so easily ac- 
complished as by w ater ; and therefore they take 
the advantage of its increase, and swim with their 
mortar on their tails, and their stakes between 
their teeth, to the places where there is most oc- 
casion for them. If their works are, either by the 
force of the water, or the feet of the huntsmen, 
who run over them, in the least damnified, the 
breach is instantly made up ; every nook and 
corner of the habitation is reviewed, and, with 
the utmost diligence and application, perfectly 
repaired. But when they find the huntsmen visit 
them too often, they work only in the night time, 
or else abandon their works entirely, and seek out 
for some safer situation. 
The dike, or mole, being thus completed, their 
next care is to erect their several apartments, which 
arc either round or oval, and divided into three 
stories, one raised above the other ; the first below 
the level of the causey, which is for the most part 
full of water ; the other two above it. This little 
fabric is built in a very firm and substantial man- 
ner, on the edge of their reservoir, and always in 
such divisions or apartments as above-mentioned ; 
that, in case of the water's increase, they may 
move up a story higher, and be no ways incommo- 
ded. If they find any little island contiguous to 
their reservoir, they fix their mansion there, which 
is then more solid, and not so frequently exposed 
to the overflowing of the water, in which they 
sre not able to continue for any length of time, 
