For their support in winter ample stores are laid up near each separate cabin, and occasionally, to give variety and luxury to their repasts during a long season, in which their stores must have become dry and nearly tasteless, they will make ex cursions into the neighbouring woods for fresh supplies. Depredations by the te nants of one cabin on the magazines of another are unknown, and the strictest notions of property and honesty are uni versal. Some of their habitations will contain six only, others twelve, and some even twenty or thirty inhabitants ; and the whole village or township contains in ge neral about 12 or 14 habitations. Strang - ers are not permitted to intrude on the vicinity ; but, amidst the different mem bers of the society itself, there appear to prevail that attachment and that friend ship, which are the natural result of mutual co-operation, and of active and successful struggles against difficulty. The approach of danger is announced by the violent striking of their tails against the surface of the water, which extends the alarm to a great distance ; and, while some throw themselves for security into the water, others retire within the precincts of their cabins, where they are safe from every enemy but man.
The neatness as well as the security of their dwellings is remarkable, the floors being strewed over with box and fir, and displaying the most admirable cleanness and order. Their general position is that of sitting, the upper part of the body, with the head, being considerably raised, while the lower touches, and is some what, indeed, immersed in the water, This element is not only indispensable to them in the same way as to other qua drupeds, but they carefully preserve ac cess to- it even when the ice is of very considerable depth, for the purpose of regaling themselves by excursions to a great extent under the frozen surface. The most general method of taking them is by attacking their cabins during these ramhles, and watching their approach to a hole dug in the ice at a small distance, to which they are obliged, after a certain time, to resort for respiration.
The flesh of the anterior part of their bodies resembles that of land animals in substance and flavour, while that of the lower possesses the taste, and smell, and lightness of fish.
The sexual union among these animals is connected with considerable individual choice, sentiment, and constancy. Every couple pass together the autumn and win ter, with the most perfect comfort and affection. About the close of winter the
females, after a gestation of four months, produce, in general, each, two or three young, and soon after this period they are quitted by the males, who ramble into the country to enjoy the return of spring ; occasionally returning to their cabins, but no longer dwelling in them. When the females have reared their young, which happens in the course of a few weeks, to a state in which they can follow their dams, these also quit their winter residence and resort to the woods, to enjoy the opening bloom and renovat ed supplies of nature. If their habitations on the water should be impaired by floods, or winds, or enemies, the beavers assemble with great rapidity to repair the damage. If no alarm of this nature occurs, the summer is principally spent by them in the woods, and on the ad vance of autumn they assemble in the scene of their former labours and friend ships, and prepare with assiduity for the confinement and rigours of approaching winter.
When taken young, the beaver may be tamed without difficulty, but exhibits few or no indications of superior intelligence. Some beavers are averse to that asso ciation which so strikingly characterises these animals in general, and satisfy them selves with digging holes in the banks of rivers, instead of erecting elaborate habi tations. The fur of these is comparative ly of little value. See Mammalia, Plate VII. fig. 1.
C. huidobrius, or the Chilese beaver. This is found principally in the deep lakes and rivers of Chili. Its tail differs from that of the former, in being lanceolated and hairy. It produces no castor, and possesses nothing of the art of architec ture. It is courageous, and even savage in its disposition, and has the power of re maining under water for a very consider able time. Its fur is employed in the ma nufacture of hats, and of a species of cloth as soft as the finast velvet.
CASTOR-oil, in pharmacy, is extracted from the kernel of the fruit produced by the Ricinus Americanus, or oil nut, which grows in many parts of America, and is much cultivated in Jamaica. A gallon of nuts from this tree will produce about a quart of oil. It is either prepared by cuction or cold drawn ; that is, extracted from the bruised seeds. It is sent over to us in barrels ; and it is reckoned the best which has least colour.