282 
BEAVER. 
ash, plane, and other trees, which they cut into 
lengths from three to six feet ; the larger ones are 
conveyed by several beavers to the magazine, and 
the smaller by a single animal ; but they take dif- 
ferent ways. Each individual has his walk assigned 
him, to prevent the labourers from being inter- 
rupted by their mutual occasions. The dimensions 
of their pile of timber are regulated in proportion to 
the number of the inhabitants ; and it has been ob- 
served that the provision of wood for ten beavers 
comprehended thirty feet in a square surface and 
ten in thickness. These parcels of wood are not 
piled up in one continued heap, but laid across 
one another with interstices between them, that 
they may the better draw out the quantity they 
want, and always take the parcel at the bottom, 
which lies in the water. They cut this wood into 
small particles and convey it to their cell, where 
the whole family come to receive their particular 
share ; and they are said to be supplied with a dou- 
ble stomach to facilitate the digestion of such a solid 
food. During the winter they never leave their 
houses, unless to fetch provisions from their maga- 
zines, and in that season grow extremely fat. In 
summer the beavers forsake their houses and wander 
about from place to place, sleeping every night on 
a bed which they prepare of sticks shred fine, under 
the shelter of some bush near the water-side. Not- 
withstanding the amazing sagacity of these animals, 
they are sometimes wrong in the choice of their 
