double that number. Instead of order or regulation being observed in rearing
ibeir houses, they are of much ruder structure than their dams; for, notwithstanding
the sagacity of these animals, it has never been observed that they aim
at any other convenience in their houses, than to have a dry place to lie on ; and
there they usually eat their victuals, which they occasionally take out of the
water. It frequently happens, that some of the large houses are found to have
one or more partitions, if they deserve that appellation ; but it is no more than a
part of the main building, left by the sagacity of the beaver to support the roof.
On such occasions, it is common for those different apartments, as some are
pleased to call them, to have no communication with each other but by water; so
that, in fact, they may be called double or treble houses, rather than different
apartments of the same house. I have seen a large beaver-house built in a small
island, that had near a dozen apartments under one roof; and, two or three,
of these only excepted, none of them had any communication with each other
but by water. As there were beavers enough to inhabit each apartment, it
is more than probable that each family knew their own, and always entered at
their own doors, without any further connection with their neighbours than a
friendly intercourse, and to join their united labours in erecting their separate
habitations, and building their dams where required. Travellers who assert that
the beavers have two doors to their houses, one on the land side and the other
next the water, seem to be less acquainted with these animals than others who
assign them an elegant suite of apartments. Such a construction would render
their houses of no use, either to protect them from their enemies, or guard them
against the extreme cold of winter.
“ So far are the beavers from driving stakes into the ground when building
their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, and nearly horizontal, and
without any other order than that of leaving a hollow or cavity in the middle;
when any unnecessary branches project inward, they cut them off with their
teeth, and throw them in among the rest, to prevent the mud from falling
through the roof. It is a mistaken notion, that the wood work is first completed
and then plastered; for the whole of their houses as well as their dams are,
from the foundation, one mass of mud and wood, mixed with stones, if they can
be procured. The mud is always taken from the edge of the bank, or the
bottom of the creek or pond, near the door of the house; and though their forepaws
are so small, yet it is held close up between them under their throat, that
they carry both mud and stones, while they always drag the wood with their
teeth. All their work is executed in the night; and they are. so expeditious,
that in the course of one night I have known them to have collected as much
mud as amounted to some thousands of their little handfuls. It is a great piece
of policy in those animals to cover the outside of their houses every fall with fresh
mud, and as late as possible in the autumn, even when the frost becomes pretty
severe, as by this means it soon freezes as hard as a stone, and prevents their
common enemy, the wolverene, from disturbing them during the winter. And as
they are frequently seen to walk over their work, and sometimes to give a flap
with their tail, particularly when plunging into the water, this has, without doubt,
given rise to the vulgar opinion that they used their tails as a trowel, with which
they plaster their houses; whereas that flapping of the tail is no more than a
custom which they always preserve, even when they become tame and domestic,
and more particularly so when they are startled.
“ Their food consists of a large root*, something resembling a cabbage-stalk,
which grows at the bottom of the lakes and rivers. They also eat the bark of
trees, particularly those of the poplar, birch, and willow; but the ice preventing
them from getting to the land in the winter, they have not any barks to feed on
in that season, except that of such sticks as they cut down in summer, and throw
into the water opposite the doors of their houses^ and as they generally eat a
great deal, the roots above-mentioned constitute a principal part of their food
during the winter. In summer, they vary their diet, by eating various kinds
of herbage, and such berries as grow near their haunts during that season.
When the ice breaks up in the spring, the beavers always leave their houses,
and rove about until a little before the fall of the leaf, when they return again to
their old habitations, and lay in their winter-stock of wood. They seldom
begin to repair the houses till the frost commences, and never finish the outer
coat till the cold is pretty severe, as hath been already mentioned. When they
erect a new habitation, they begin felling the wood early in summer, but seldom
begin to build until the middle or latter end of August, and never complete it till
the cold weather be set in.
“ Persons who attempt to take beaver in winter should be thoroughly
acquainted with their manner of life, otherwise they will have endless trouble to
effect their purpose, because they have always a number of holes in the banks,
which serve them as places of retreat when any injury is offered to their houses ;
and in general it is in those holes that they are taken. When the beaver which
are situated in a small river or creek are to be taken, the Indians sometimes find
Hoot of Nuphar lute-urn.—J. R.