his animal
suits the form of its habitation, retreats, and dam, to local
circumstances; and I compared the account of its manners, given by
Cuvier, in his _Regne Animal_, with the reports of the Indians, and
found them to agree exactly. They have been often seen in the act of
constructing their houses in the moon-light nights, and the observers
agree, that the stones, wood, or other materials, are carried in their
teeth, and generally leaning against the shoulder. When they have placed
it to their mind, they turn round and give it a smart blow with their
flat tail. In the act of diving they give a similar stroke to the
surface of the water. They keep their provision of wood under water in
front of the house. Their favourite food is the bark of the aspen,
birch, and willow; they also eat the alder, but seldom touch any of the
pine tribe unless from necessity; they are fond of the large roots of
the _nuphar lutea_, and grow fat upon it, but it gives their flesh a
strong rancid taste. In the season of love their call resembles a groan,
that of the male being the hoarsest, but the voice of the young is
exactly like the cry of a child. They are very playful, as the following
anecdote will shew:--One day a gentleman, long resident in this 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 approached softly under cover of the bushes, and prepared to
fire on the unsuspecting creatures, but a nearer approach discovered to
him such a similitude betwixt their gestures and the infantile caresses
of his own children, that he threw aside his gun. This gentleman's
feelings are to be envied, but few traders in fur would have acted so
feelingly. The musk-rat frequently inhabits the same lodge with the
beaver, and the otter also thrusts himself in occasionally; the latter,
however, is not always a civil guest, as he sometimes devours his host.

These are the animals most interesting in an economical point of
view. The American hare, and several kinds of grouse and ptarmigan,
also contribute towards the support of the natives; and the geese,
in their periodical flights in the spring and autumn, likewise prove
a valuable resource both to the Indians and white residents; but the
principal article of food, after the moose-deer, is fish; indeed, it
forms almost the sole support of the traders at some of the posts.
The most esteemed