Traverses? Juice. water is fubject to rifings and fallings, they build a bank, which traverfes the river from one fide to the other, like a fluice, and is often from eighty to one hundred feet long, prefuppofes? by ten or twelve broad at the bafe. This pile, for animals of fo fmall a fize, appears to be enormous, and prefupp fes an incredible labour. falidity? erect? margin? gnawing. 5. But the folidity with which the work is conftructed is ftill more aftonishing than its magnitude. The part of the river where they erect this bank is generally fhallow. If they find on the margin a large tree, which can be made to fall into the river, they begin, by cutting it down, to form the principal bafis of their work. 6. This tree is often thicker than a man's body. By gnawing it at the bottom with their four cutting teeth, they in a short time accomplish their purpofe, and always make the tree fall across the river. They next community? cut the branches from the trunk to make it lie level. Thefe operations are performed by the joint induftry of the whole community. fmaller. thigh. fame time tra river, 7. Some of them, at the and cut down fize of a man's leg Thefe they cut to a certain length, drefs them into flakes, and firft drag them by land to the margin of the river, and then by water to the place where the building is carrying on. furmounted? 8. Thefe piles they fink down, and interweave the branches with the larger stakes. In performing this operation many difficulIn order to perpendicular? ties are to be furmounted. elevate? dress these stakes, and to put them in a fit uation nearly perpendicular, fome of the beavers must elevate, with their teeth, the the thick ends against the margin of the Receive. 9. When fome are labouring in this man- tranfport? ner, others bring earth which they plafh with their feet, and beat firm with their tails. They carry the earth in their mouths, and intervals? with their fore-feet. They transport earth in fuch quantities, that they fill with it all the intervals between the piles. 10. Thefe piles confift of feveral rows of height? ftakes, of equal height, all placed oppofite to each other, and extend from one bank of the 11. Near the top, or thinnest part of the. bank, the beavers make two or three flop thinneft. ing holes, to allow the furface-water to escape. inundations ? These they enlarge or contract in proportion as the river rifes or fails; and, when any them when the water fubfides. 12. Hitherto all thefe operations were dexterity? performed by the united force and dexterity of the whole community. They now feparate into fmaller focieties, who build cabins or feparate. houfes. These cabins are conitructed upon piles near the margin of the river or pond, and have two openings, one for the animals. going to the land, and the other for throwing. themlelves into the water. 13. The form of thefe edifices is either edifices? round or oval, and they vary in fize from four Diameter? curved? terminate? dome? Solility? impetuous mortar. heavier. refift? cutting. ample? magazine? four or five to eight or ten feet in diameter. Some of them confift of three or four stories. Their walls are about two feet thick; and are raised perpendicularly upon planks, or plain ftakes, which ferve both for foundations and floors to their houses. 14. When they confift of but one story, they rife perpendicularly a few feet only, afterwards affume a curved form, and terminate in a dome or vault, which answers the purpose of a roof. They are built with amazing folidity, and neatly plastered with a kind of ftucco both within and without. 15. In the application of this mortar the tails of the beavers ferve for trowels, and their feet for plafhing. Their houfes are impenetrable to rain, and refit the moft impetuous winds. In their conftruction, they employ different materials, as wood, ftone, and a kind of fandy earth, which is not liable to be diffolved in water. 16. The wood they ufe is generally of the light and tender kinds, as alders, poplars, and willows, which commonly grow on the banks of rivers, and are more easily barked, cut, and tranfported, than the heavier and more folid fpecies of timber. 17. They always begin the operation of cutting trees at a foot or a foot and a half above the ground: They labour in a fitting polture; and, befide the convenience of this pofture, they enjoy the pleature of gnawing perpetually the bark and wood, which are their favourite ford. Cf thefe provifions they lay up ample ftores in their cabins to fupport. them during the winter. 18. Each cabin has its own magazine, which is proportioned to the number of its inhabitants, who have all a common right to the the ftore, and never pillage their neighbors. Pillage, ? Some villages are compofed of twenty or / twenty-five cabins. 19. But thefe large eftablishments are not exceed. frequent; and the common republics feldom exceed ten or twelve families, of which each have their own quarter of the village, villeged their own magazine, and their feparate hab itation. The fmalleft cabins contain two, four, or fix, and the largest eighteen, twenty, and fometimes thirty beavers. As to males and females, they are almost always equally paired. computation, 20. Upon a moderate therefore, the fociety is often compofed of fele&? 190 or 200, who all, at first labour jointly in raiting the great public building, and afterwards, in fele tribes or companies, in mak ing particular habitations. 21. In this fociety, however numerous, and univerfal peace is maintained. There union is cemented by common labours; and it is perpetuated by mutual conveniency, and the abundance of provifions which they amafs and confume together. A fimple taste, moderate appetites, and an averfion to blood and carnage, render them deftitute of the ideas of rapine and of war. connected? perpetuated? averfion? 22. Friends to each other, if they have foreign? any foreign enemies they know how to avoid them. When danger, approaches, they advertise one another, by ftriking their broad tail on the furface of the water, the noife of advertise? which is heard at a great distance, and refounds through all the vaults of their habita tions. 23. Each individual, upon thefe occafions, conceal confults his own fafety; fome plunge into the water; others conceal themselves within their penetrated. walls, which can be penetrated only by the fre aperture? anterior? Rope? obliquely. pofterior? dour? thick. fire of heaven, or the feel of man, and which no animal will attempt to open or to overturn. 24. These retreats are not only fafe but neat and commodious. The floors are spread over with verdure: the branches of the box,and of the fir ferve them for carpets, upon which they permit not the smallest dirtinefs. The window which faces the water anfwers for a balcony to receive the fresh air, and for the purpofe of bathing. The 25. During the greater part of the day, the beavers fit on end, with their head and the anterior parts of their body elevated, and their pofterior parts funk in the water. aperture of this window is fufficiently raised to prevent its being topped up with the ice, which, in the beaver climates, is often two or three feet thick. 26. When this accident happens, they flope the fole of the window, cut obliquely the ftakes which fupport it, and thus open a communication with the unfrozen water. They often swim a long way under the ice. 27. The continual habit of keeping their tail and pofterior parts of their body in the water, appears to have changed the nature of their flesh; for that of their anterior parts, as far as the reins, has the taste and confistence of the flesh of land-animals; but that of the tail and pofterior parts has the odour and all the other qualities of fish. 28. The tail, which is a foot long, an inch thick, and five or fix inches broad, is a genuine portion of a fish attached to the body of a quadruped: It is wholly covered with quadruped? fcales, and below the fcales with a skin perfectly fimilar to that of large fifhes. In September, the beavers collect their provifions of bark and of wood. |
