ouses--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 variation 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 woodwork 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
fore-paws are so small, yet it is held close up between them under their
throat: thus 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 as amounted to some thousands of their
little handfuls. It is a great piece of policy in these 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 use
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
wil