280 
BEAVER. 
veniency of getting to their magazine of provisions 
in frosty weather : — u This orifice is formed so as to 
be beyond the thickness of the ice, for they lodge 
their provisions under the water, and dive and bring 
it into their house according as they want it.” Cap- 
tain Cartwright, however, whose residence of nearly 
sixteen years on the Labrador coast gave him every 
opportunity he could desire of studying this extra- 
ordinary animal, assures us that their habitations 
have but one hole, which is always next the water. 
They sometimes build their houses entirely on the 
dry land, and sink ditches five or six feet deep, in 
order to descend to the water. They employ the 
same materials and industry in the structure of their 
dwelling as they use for the causeway. The walls 
of the building are perpendicular, and two feet thick. 
As their teeth are more serviceable than saws, they 
cut off all the projections from the wood that shoots 
out beyond the perpendicular of the wall ; after 
which they work up a mixture of clay and dry grass 
into a kind of mortar, with which, with the aid of 
their tails, they rough-cast the out- and insides of 
their work. 
The edifice is erected on piles, and rises either 
of a round or oval figure ; the top is arched, which 
gives it the appearance of a dome on the outside, and 
within it resembles an oven. The dimensions are 
proportioned to the number of the intended inha- 
bitants. Twelve feet in length and ten in breadth 
are sufficient for eight or ten beavers. They build 
their houses of earth, stones, and sticks, cemented 
