BEAVER. 2/7 
those of ducks and other water-fowl. This makes 
it evident that the Author of Nature intended the 
creature should be amphibious. His tail is about a 
foot long, almost flat, entirely covered with scales, 
supplied with muscles, and said to be perpetually 
lubricated with oil or fat. This animal, who is an 
architect from his nativity, uses his tail instead of 
a hod for the conveyance of his clay or mortar, and 
a trowel to spread and form it into an incrustation : 
the scales prevent these materials from penetrating 
the tail with their coldness and humidity. 
The beavers inhabit the same mansion in great 
numbers, unless violent heats or inundations, the 
pursuits of hunters, scarcity of provisions, or the 
extraordinary increase of their offspring, oblige them 
to separate. One would readily suppose that they 
would fix their residence on the banks of one of the 
large rivers or lakes which are so abundant in Ame- 
rica ; but no, their sagacity informs them of the 
precarious tenure of such dwellings, which are liable 
to be overthrown by every flood. They therefore 
choose a situation by the side of some little rivulet, 
where they can form a sufficient reservoir of water, 
and have nothing to fear, but from land floods or 
the sudden melting of the snows. When the bea- 
vers have determined on the spot, they begin with 
building a mole, or causeway, in which the water 
may rise to a level with the first story of their ha- 
bitation. This causeway, at the foundation, may 
be ten or twelve feet in thickness. It descends in a 
slope on the side next the water, which, in propor- 
