numbers from every side, and generally form a company of above two hundred. The place of meeting is commonly the place where they fix their abode, and this is always by the side of some lake or river. If it be a lake in which the waters are always upon a level, they dispense with building a dam; but if it be a running stream, which is subject to floods and falls, they then set about building a dam, or pier, that crosses the river, so that it forms a dead water in that part which lies above and below. This dam, or pier, is often fourscore or a hundred feet long, and ten or twelve feet thick at the base. If we compare the greatness of the work with the powers of the architect, it will appear enor. mous; but the solidity with which it is built is still more astonishing than its size. The part of the river over which this dam is usually built is where it is most shallow, and where some great tree is found growing by the side of the stream. This they pitch upon as proper for making the principal part in their building; and, although it is often thicker than a man's body, they instantly set about cutting it down. For this operation they have no other instrument but their teeth, which soon lay it level, and that also on the side they wish it to fall, which is always across the stream. They then fall about cutting off the top branches, to make it lie close and even, and serve as the principal beam of their fabric.(g)

This dike or causey, is sometimes ten, and sometimes twelve feet thick at the foundation. It descends in a declivity or slope, on that side next the water, which gravitates upon the work in proportion to the height, and presses it with a prodigious force towards the earth. The opposite side is erected perpendicularly like our walls; and that declivity, which, at the bottom or basis, is about twelve feet broad, diminishes towards the top, where it is no more than two feet broad, or thereabouts. The materials whereof this mole consists, are wood and clay. The beavers cut, with surprising ease, large pieces of wood, some as thick as one's arm or one's thigh, and about four, five, or six feet in length, or sometimes more, according as the slope ascends. They drive one end of these stakes into the ground, at a small distance one from the other, intermingling a few with them that are smaller and more pliant. As the water, however, would find a passage through the intervals or spaces between them, and leave the reservoir dry, they have recourse to a clay, which they know where to find, and with which they stop up all the cavities both within and without, so that the water is duly confined. They continue to raise the dike in proportion to the elevation of the water, and the plenty which they have of it. They are conscious likewise that the conveyance of their materials by land would not be so easily accomplished as by water; and, therefore, they take the advantage of its increase, and swim with their mortar on their tails, and their stakes between their teeth, to the places where there is most occasion for them. If their works are, either by the force of the water, or the feet of the huntsmen, who run over them, in the least damnified, the breach is instantly made up; every nook and corner of the habitation is reviewed, and with the utmost diligence and application, perfectly repaired. But when they find the huntsmen visit them too often, they work only in the night-time, or else abandon their works entirely, and seek out for some safer situation.

The dike, or mole, being thus completed, their next care is to erect their several apartments, which are either round or oval, and divided into three stories, one raised above the other: the first below the level of the causey, which is for the most part full of water; the other two above it. This little fabric is built in a very firm and substantial manner, on the edge of their reservoir, and always in such divisions or apartments as above mentioned; that in case of the water's increase, they may move up a story higher, and be no ways incommoded. If they find any little island contiguous to their reservoir, they fix their mansion there, which is then more solid, and not so frequently exposed to the overflowing of the water, in which they are not able to continue for any length of time. In case they cannot pitch upon so commodious a situation,

(g) Spectacle de la Nature.

216

they drive piles into the earth, in order to fence and fortify their habitation against the wind as well as the water. They make two apertures, at the bottom. to the stream; one is a passage to their bagnio, which they always keep neat and clean; the other leads to that part of the building where every thing is conveyed that will either soil or damage their upper apartments. They have a third opening or doorway, much higher, contrived for the prevention of their being shut up and confined, when the frost and snow have closed the apertures of the lower floors. Sometimes they build their houses altogether upon dry land; but then they sink trenches five or six feet deep, in order to descend into the water when they see convenient. They make use of the same materials; and are equally industrious in the erection of their lodges, as their dikes. Their walls are perpendicular, and about two feet thick. As their teeth are more serviceable than saws, they cut off all the wood that projects beyond the wall. After this, when they have mixed up some clay and dry grass together, they work it into a kind of mortar, with which, by the help of their tails, they plaster all their works, both within and without.

The inside is vaulted, and is large enough for the reception of eight or ten beavers. In case it rises in an oval figure, it is for the generality above twelve feet long, and eight or ten feet broad. If the number of inhabitants increase to fifteen, twenty or thirty, the edifice is enlarged in proportion. I have been credibly informed, that four hundred beavers have been discovered to reside in one large mansion-house, divided into a vast number of apartments, that had a free communication one with another.

All these works, more especially in the northern parts, are finished in August, or September at farthest; at which time they begin to lay in their stores.* During the summer, they are perfect epicures; and regale themselves every day on the choicest fruits and plants the country affords. Their provisions, indeed, in the winter season, principally consist of the wood of the birch, the plane, and some few other trees, which they steep in water, from time to time, in such quantities as are proportioned to the number of inhabitants. They cut down branches from three to ten feet in length. Those of the largest dimensions are conveyed to their magazines by a whole body of beavers; but the smallest by one only each of them, however, takes a different way, and has his proper walk assigned him, in order that no one labourer should interrupt another in the prosecution of his work. portion to the number in family: and, according to the observation of some Their wood-yards are larger or smaller, in procurious naturalists, the usual stock of timber, for the accommodation of ten beavers, consists of about thirty feet in a square surface, and ten in depth. These logs are not thrown up in one continual pile, but laid one across the other, with intervals or small spaces between them, in order to take out, with the greater facility, but just such a quantity as they shall want for their immediate consumption, and those parcels only which lie at the bottom in the water. and have been duly steeped. This timber is cut again into small particles, and conveyed to one of their largest lodges, where the whole family meet, to

* INGENUITY OF A BEAVER AT PARIS. A beaver from the Rhine is now, or was lately, in the royal collection in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, which exhibited as much ingenuity as has ever been ascribed to the species in a wild state, and more than enough to silence the incredulity of sceptics respecting the beavers' dams, and their magazines of winter provisions. This beaver, for instance, we are informed by M. Geoffroi St. Hilaire, was, during the severe weather in winter, furnished with fresh twigs of trees, to give exercise to his propensity to gnawing, and with apples, &c. as a more nutritive food. One night there came on a snow storm, and

the snow beat into his domicile in considershielding himself from the inconvenience. For able quantity, till he found out a plan of this purpose, he cut his supply of twigs into proper lengths, to be woven in the basket fashion between the bars of his cage; chopped his apples in pieces, to fill up the intervals between the twigs; and, when even this did not appear sufficiently air-tight, or (if you will) storm-tight, he kneaded the snow into the intervals. By the morning it appeared that he had laboured hard all night, and had completed a very neat and ingenious harricado against the intrusion of the snow.-ARCANA OF SCIENCE, 1830.

consume their respective dividends, which are made impartially, in even and equal portions. Sometimes they traverse the woods, and regale their young with a more novel and elegant entertainment.

Such as are used to hunt these animals,* know perfectly well, that green wood is much more acceptable to them than that which is old and dry; for which reason they plant a considerable quantity of it round their lodgments; and as they come out to partake of it, they either catch them in snares, or take them by surprise. In the winter, when the frosts are very severe, they sometimes break a large hole in the ice; and when the beavers resort thither for the benefit of a little fresh air, they either kill them with their hatchets, or cover the opening with a large substantial net. After this, they undermine and and subvert the whole fabric: whereupon the beavers, in hopes to make their escape in the usual way, fly with the utmost precipitation to the water; and plunging into the aperture, fall directly into the net, and are inevitably taken.†

THE SEAL.-Every step we proceed in the description of amphibious quadrupeds, we make nearer advances to the tribe of fishes. We first observed the otter with its feet webbed, and formed for an aquatic life; we next saw the beaver with the hinder parts covered with scales, resembling those of fishes; and we now come to a class of animals in which the shape and habitude of fishes still more apparently prevail, and whose internal conformation attaches them very closely to the water. The seal, in general, resembles a quadruped in some

respects, and a fish in others. The head is round, like that of a man; the nose broad, like that of the otter; the teeth like those of a dog; the eyes large and sparkling; no external ears, but holes that serve for that purpose; the neck is well proportioned, and of a moderate length; but the body thickest where the neck is joined to it. From thence the animal tapers down to the tail, growing all the way smaller, like a fish. The whole body is covered with a thick bristly shining hair, which looks as if it were entirely rubbed over with oil; and thus far the quadruped prevails over the aquatic. But it is in the feet that this animal greatly differs from all the rest of the quadruped kind; for, though furnished with the same number of bones with other quadrupeds, yet they are so stuck on the body, and so covered with a membrane, that they more resemble fins than feet; and might be taken for such, did not the claws with which they are pointed show their proper analogy. In the fore feet, or rather hands, all the arm and the cubit are hid under the skin, and nothing appears but the hand from the wrist downwards; so that if we imagine a child with its arms swathed down, and nothing appearing but its hands at each side of the body, towards the breast, we may have some idea of the formation of this animal in that part. These hands are covered in a thick skin, which serves, like a fin, for swimming; and are distinguished by five claws, which are long, black, and piercing. As to the hind feet, they are stretched out on each side of the short tail, covered with a hairy skin like the former, and both together almost joining at the tail; the whole looks like the broad flat tail of a tish; and, were it not for five claws which appear, might be considered as such. The dimensions of this animal are various, being found from four feet long to nine. They differ also in their colours: some being black, others spotted, some white, and many more yellow. The water is the seal's usual habitation, and whatever fish it can catch, its food. Though not equal in instinct and cunning to some terrestrial animals, it is greatly superior to the mute tenants of that element in which it chiefly resides. Although it can continue for several minutes under water, yet it is not

the beavers is prepared from the substance called castor (castoreum) obtained from the glandulous pouches of the male animal, which contain sometimes from two to three ounces. ANECDOTE.-The young beavers whine in such a manner as closely to resemble the cry of a child. Like the young of most other animals they are very playful, and their movements are peculiarly interesting. "One day a gentleman, long resident in the Hudson's Bay Country, espied five young beavers sporting in the water, leaping upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another off, and playing a thousand interesting tricks. He ap

proached softly under cover of the bushes, and prepared to fire on the unsuspecting creatures, but a nearer approach discovered to him such a similitude between their gestures and the infantile caresses of his own children, that he threw aside his gun, and left them unmolested."-FRANKLIN.

SEALS have six pointed parallel teeth in the upper jaw, the outer ones of which are larger; there are five grinders on each side above, and six below; all of which have three knobs; the hind feet are united into a kind of fin.

able, like fishes, to remain there for any length of time; and a seal may be drowned like any other terrestrial animal. Thus it seems superior in some respects to the inhabitants of both elements, and inferior in many more. Although furnished with legs, it is in some measure deprived of all the advan tages of them.(g) They are shut up within its body, while nothing appear but the extremities of them, and these furnished with very little motion, but to serve them as fins in the water. The hind feet, indeed, being turned backwards, are entirely useless upon land; so that when the animal is obliged to move, it drags itself forward like a reptile, and with an effort more painful. For this purpose it is obliged to use its fore feet, which, though very short, serve to give it such a degree of swiftness, that a man cannot readily overtake it; and it runs towards the sea. As it is thus awkwardly formed for going upon land, it is seldom found at any distance from the sea-shore, but continues to bask upon the rocks, and when disturbed, always plunges down at once to the bottom.

The seal is a social animal, and, wherever it frequents, numbers are generally seen together.* They are found in every climate, but in the north and icy seas they are particularly numerous. It is on those shores, which are less inhabited than ours, and where the fish resort in greater abundance, that they are seen by thousands, like flocks of sheep, basking on the rocks, and suckling their young. There they keep watch like other gregarious animals; and, if an enemy appear, instantly plunge altogether into the water. In fine weather they more usually employ their time in fishing; and generally come on shore in tempests and storms. The seal seems the only animal that takes delight in these tremendous conflicts of nature. In the midst of thunders and torrents, when every other creature takes refuge from the fury of the elements, the seals are seen by thousands sporting along the shore, and delighted with the universal disorder. This, however, may arise from the sea being at that time too turbulent for them to reside in; and they may then particularly come upon land, when unable to resist the shock of their more usual element.

As seals are gregarious, so they are also animals of passage, and perhaps the only quadrupeds that migrate from one part of the world to another. The generality of quadrupeds are contented with their native plains and forests, and seldom stray, except when necessity or fear impels them. But seals change their habitation; and are seen in vast multitudes directing their course from one continent to another.(g) On the northern coasts of Greenland they are seen to retire in July, and to return again in September. This time it is supposed they go in pursuit of food. But they make a second departure in March to cast their young, and return in the beginning of June, young and all, in a great body together, observing in their route a certain fixed time and track, like

* LOVE OF MUSICAL SOUNDS.- The seal, though the ears are cropped close to the head, has a most delicate sense of hearing, and delights in musical sounds: this fact was not unknown to the ancients. Laing, in his account of a voyage to Spitzbergen, states that a numerous auditory of seals would surround the vessel and follow it for miles when the violin (as was often the case) was played on deck. And the late Sir Walter Scott, in allusion to this singular trait in the nature of the animal, says,

"Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, Will long pursue the minstrel's bark."

Among many instances of the domestication of the seal, and its use in fishing, we select the following anecdote, with which we close our account. "In January 1819, a gen(g) Buffon.

tleman in the neighbourhood of Burntisland, county of Fife, Scotland, completely succeeded in taming a seal. Its singularities attracted the curiosity of strangers daily. It appeared to possess all the sagacity of a dog, lived in its master's house, and ate from his hand. In his fishing excursions, this gentleman generally took it with him, when it afforded no small entertainment. If thrown into the water, it would follow for miles the track of the boat; and, though thrust back by the oars, it never relinquished its purpose. Indeed it struggled so hard to regain its seat, that one would imagine its fondness for its master had entirely overcome the natural predilection for its native element."-RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY'S NATURAL HISTORY.

(g) Krantz, vol. i. p. 129.