s 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 five or six feet thick; and one, in particular,
was more than eight feet thick in the crown. When the beavers find that
their habitations are invaded, they fly to their holes in the banks for
shelter; and on being perceived by the Indians, which is easily done, by
attending to the motion 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. The beaver is an animal
which cannot keep long under 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 in nets, and, in summer, very
frequently in traps.

"In respect to the beavers dunging in their houses, as some persons
assert, it is quite wrong, as they always plunge into water to do it. I
am the better enabled to make this assertion, from having kept several
of them till they became so domesticated as to answer to their name, and
follow those to whom they were accustomed in the same manner as a dog
would do; and they were as much pleased at being fondled as any animal I
ever saw. In cold weather they were kept in my own sitting-room, where
they were the constant companions of the Indian women and children; and
were so fond of their company, that when the Indians were absent for any
considerable time, the beavers discovered great signs of uneasiness, and
on their return showed equal marks of pleasure, by fondling on them,
crawling into their laps, lying on their backs, sitting erect like a
squirrel, and behaving like children who see their parents but seldom.
In general, during the winter, they lived on the same food as the women
did; and were immoderately fond of rice and plum-pudding; they would eat
partridges and fresh venison very freely; but I never tried them with
fish, though I have heard they will at times prey on them. In fact,
there are few graminivorous animals that may not be brought to be
carnivorous."

The _Musquash_, or _Musk-rat_, is undoubted