BEAVER, 
281 
together with great art and ingenuity. Each house 
contains from two to thirty beavers. Every beaver 
forms its own bed of moss ; and each family fills its 
magazine with provisions against the winter, which, 
as we have before remarked, they keep under water, 
and bring into their apartments as they want them. 
It has been asserted for a truth, that there have been 
found above four hundred of these creatures in dif- 
ferent lodgments communicating with each other. 
But these popular societies are very rare, because 
they are too unmanageable and tumultuous, and 
the beavers are generally better acquainted with 
their own interests. From ten to twenty-five of 
these houses are generally built ; sometimes a few 
more. 
The inhabitants of these little mansions are gifted 
with a natural arithmetic, which enables them to 
proportion the place and provisions to the necessi- 
ties of the company ; and as it is customary for 
every family to continue in constant possession of 
their own habitation, they never charge themselves 
with unnecessary expenses for any accidental guests. 
All these works, especially in the cold regions, 
are completed in August or September, after 
which period they furnish themselves with provi- 
sions. During the summer season they regale them- 
selves w ith all the fruits and plants the country pro- 
duces ; but on the approach of winter the tenants 
of each house are fully employed in stocking the 
magazine with the bark and boughs of the sassafras. 
