"The beaver-houses are built of the same materials as their dams, and are always proportioned in size to the number of inhabitants, which seldom exceeds four old and six or eight young ones; though by chance I have seen above double the number. Instead of order or regulation being observed in rearing their houses, they are of a 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 appel lation, 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 darns 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 moat 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 thongh 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 handsfuL 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. [Nuphar
!idea, according to Sir J. Richardson, the common yellow water-lily.] They also eat the bark of trees, particularly those of the poplar, birch, and willow ; hut 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 their 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 the 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 beavers which are situated iu a small river or creek are to be taken, the Indians sometimes find it necessary to stake the river across, to prevent them from passing; after which they endeavour to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the banks. This requires much practice and experience to accomplish, and is performed in the following mauner :—Every man being furnished with an ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four or five feet long ; he then along the edge of the banks, and keeps kuocking big chisel against the ice. Those who are acquainted with that kind of work well know by the sound of the ice when they are opposite to any of the beavers' holes or vaults. As soon as they suspect any, they cut a hole through the ice big enought to admit an old beaver, and in this manner proceed till they have found out all their places of retreat, or at least as many of them as possible. While the principal men are thus employed, some of the understrappers and the women are busy in breaking open the house, which at times is no easy task, for I have frequently known these houses to be 5 or 6 feet thick, and one in particular was more than 8 feet thick in the crown. When the beavers find that theirhabitation are invaded, they fly to their holes in the banks for shelter ; and ou being perceived by the Indians, which is easily done by attending to the motiou of the water, they block up the entrance with stakes of wood, and then haul the beaver out of its hole, either by hand, if they can reach it, or with a large hook made for that purpose, which is fastened to the end of a long stick. In this kind of hunting, .every man has the sole right to all the beavers caught by him in the holes or vaults ; and as this is a constant rule, each person takes care to mark such as he discovers by sticking up a branch of a tree, by which he may know them. All that are caught in the house are the property of the person who finds it. The beaver is an animal which cannot keep under water long at a time, so that when their houses are broken open, and all their places of retreat discovered, they have but one choice left, as it may be called, either to be taken in their house or their vaults ; in general they prefer the latter, for where there is one beaver caught in the house, many thousands are taken in the vaults in the banks. Sometimes they are caught iu nets, and iu summer very frequently in traps.