Buffon's Extraordinary Chapter
on The Beaver
translated by William Smellie in
1781
placed on the web by Fran Moran
of the Buffon Project
for more info on that project go
to: Buffon's Natural History
In proportion as man rises above a state of
nature, the other animals sink below that standard: Reduced to
slavery, or treated as rebels, and dispersed by force, their
societies have vanished, their industry has become barren, their
arts have disappeared, each species has lost its general
qualities, and the whole have preserved only their individual
properties, matured, in some, by example, by imitation, and by
instruction; and, in others, by fear, and by the necessity of
perpetually watching over their won safety. What views, what
designs can be possessed by [21] slaves without spirit, or exiles
without power? compelled to fly, and to exist in solitary manner,
they can arrive at no improvement; they can neither acquire nor
transmit knowledge; but must continually languish in calamity,
and decay; they must perpetuate without multiplying; and, in a
word, they must lose by their duration more than they acquire by
experience.
It is for this reason that there are now no
remains of that astonishing industry of animals, excepting in
those distant and desert regions where, for a long succession of
ages, they have received no disturbance from man, where each
species can display with freedom its natural talents, and mature
them in quiet, by uniting into permanent societies. the beavers
afford, perhaps, the only subsisting monument of the antient
intelligence of brutes, which, though infinitely inferior in
principle to the human intellect, supposes common projects and
relative views; projects which, having society for their basis,
and, for their object, a dike to construct, a town to build, or a
republic to found, imply some mode of making themselves
understood, and the capacity of acting in concert.
The beavers are said to be, among quadrupeds,
what the bees are among the insect tribes. There are in Nature,
as she now appears, three species of societies, which must be
examined before we can compare them: The free society of man,
from which, next to God, he derives all his [22] power; the
constrained society of the larger animals, which always flies
before that of man; and the necessary society of certain small
creatures, which, being all produced at the same time, and in the
same place, are obliged to live together. An individual, solitary
as he comes from the hand of Nature, is a sterile being, whose
industry is limited to the simple use of his senses. Even man
himself, in a state of pure nature, deprived of the light and
assistance of society, neither produces nor constructs.
Fertility, on the contrary, is the necessary result of every
society, however blind or fortuitous, provided it be composed of
creatures of the same nature. From the necessity alone of
desiring to approach or to avoid each other, common movements
arise, from which there often results a work, that has the air of
being concerted, managed, and executed with intelligence. Thus
the works of bees, each of whom, in a given place, such as a
hive, or the hollow of an old tree, builds a cell; the works of
the Cayenne bee, or fly, who not only makes the cells, but the
hive that is to contain them, are operations purely mechanical,
and imply no intelligence, no concerted project, no general
views; they are labours which, being the produce of a physical
necessity, a result of common movements*, are at all times, and
in all places, uniformly executed in the same manner, by a
multitude, not assembled from choice, but united by the force of
nature. [23] Hence, it is not society, but numbers alone, which
operate here. It is a blind power, never to be compared to that
light by which all society is directed. I speak not of that pure
light, that ray of divinity, which has been imparted to man
alone. Of this the beavers, as well as all the other animals, are
most assuredly deprived. But their society, not being a union of
constraint, but proceeding from a species of choice, and
supposing at least, a general concert and common views in its
members, implies likewise a certain degree of intelligence,
which, though different in principle from that of man, produced
effects so similar as to admit of comparison, not, indeed, to the
luminous society of polished nations, but to the rudiments of it,
as they appear among savages, whose union and operations can
alone, with propriety, be compared to those of certain animals.
Let us, then, examine the product of each of
these associations; let us see how far the art of the beaver
extends, and to what the talents of the savage is limited. To
break a branch, and to make a staff of it, to build a hut, and to
cover it with leaves, for shelter, and to collect hay or moss,
and to make a bed of these materials, are operations common to
the animal and to the savage. The beavers build huts, the monkeys
carry slaves, and several other animals make commodious and neat
houses, which are impenetrable by water. To sharpen a stone by
friction, and make a hatchet of it, to use this hatchet for cut-
[24] ting or peeling the bark off trees, for pointing arrows, for
hollowing a vessel, or for slaying an animals in order to clothe
themselves with its skin, to make bow-strings of its sinews, to
fix the sinews to a hard thorn or bone, and to use these for
needles and thread, are actions purely individual, which man in
solitude may perform without the aid of others; actions which
solely depend on conformation, because they suppose nothing but
the use of the hand. But, to cut and transport a large tree, to
build a village, or to construct a large canoe, are operations,
on the contrary, which necessarily suppose common labour and
concerted views. These works are the results of infant society in
savage nations; but the operations of the beavers are the fruits
of society already matured among those animals; for it must be
remarked, that they never think of building, but in countries
where they are perfectly free and undisturbed. There are beavers
in Languedoc, and in the islands of the Rhone; and they abound in
many of the northern provinces of Europe. But, as all these
counties are inhabited, or, at least, frequented by men, the
beavers there, like all the other animals, are dispersed,
solitary, fugitive, and timid creatures. They have never been
known to unite, or to construct any common work. But, in desert
regions, where men in society were long of arriving, and where
some vestiges only of savages could be traced, the beavers have
every where united, formed [25] associations, and constructed
works which continue to excite admiration. Of this I shall
endeavour to quote the most judicious and irreproachable
authorities, and shall hold as certain only those facts
concerning which authors agree. Less inclined, perhaps, than some
of them, to indulge admiration, I shall venture to doubt, and
even to criticize, every article that appears too hard to be
credited.
It is universally allowed, that the beaver, in
his purely individual qualities, instead of possessing any marked
superiority over the other animals, appears, on the contrary, to
sink considerably below some of them: And we are enabled to
confirm this fact, being possessed of a young beaver, sent us
from Canada*, which we have kept alive near twelve months. This
animal is very gentle, peaceable, and familiar. It is somewhat
melancholy, and even plaintive; but has no violence or vehemence
in its passions. Its movements are slow, and its efforts feeble;
yet is seriously occupied with a desire of liberty, gnawing, from
time to time, the gates of its prison, but without fury or
precipitation, and with the sole view of making an opening for
escape. In other matters, it seems to be extremely indifferent,
forming no attachment+ , and neither wishes to hurt nor [26] to
please. In these relative qualities, which would make him
approach to man, he seems to be inferior to the dog. He appears
to be formed neither for serving, commanding, nor even holding
commerce with any other species than his own. His sense, locked
up in his own person, never entirely manifests itself but among
his own tribe. When alone, he has little personal industry, less
artifice, and hardly prudence enough to avoid the grossest
snares. Instead of attacking other animals, he is even very
aukward in defending himself. He prefers flight to combat, though
he bites cruelly when he finds himself seized by the hand of the
hunter.
If, then, we consider this animal in a state of
nature, or rather in a state of solitude and dispersion, he
appears not, by his internal qualities, to rise above the other
animals. He has not the genius of a dog, the sense of an
elephant, the craftiness of the fox, &c. but is more
remarkable for some singularities of external conformation, than
for any apparent superiority of mental faculties. He is the only
quadruped furnished with a flat, oval tail, covered with scales,
which he uses as a rudder to direct his course in the water; the
only animal that has his hind-feet webbed, and the toes of his
fore-feet, which he employs for carrying victuals to his mouth,
separate from each other; the only quadruped that [27] resembles
the land-animals in the anterior parts of his body, and the
aquatic animals in the posterior. He forms the link between
quadrupeds and fishes, as the bat does between quadrupeds and
birds. But these peculiarities would be rather defects than
perfections, if the beaver knew not how to derive, from this
singular conformation, advantages which render him superior to
every other quadruped.
The beavers begin to assemble, in the month of
June or July, for the purpose of uniting into society. They
arrive in numbers, from all corners, and soon form a troop of two
or three hundred. The place of rendezvous is generally the
situation fixed for their establishment, and is always on the
banks of waters. If the waters be flat, and never rise above
their ordinary level, as in lakes, the beavers make no bank or
dam. But, in rivers or brooks, where the waters are subject to
risings and fallings, they build a bank, and, by this artifice,
they form a pond or piece of water which remains always at the
same height. The bank traverse the river, from one side to the
other, like a sluice, and it is often from 80 to 100 feet long,
by 10 or 12 broad at the base. This pile, for animals of a size
so small, appears to be enormous, and supposes an incredible
labour*. But the solidity with which the work is
construc-[28]ted, is still more astonishing than its magnitude.
The part of the river where they erect this bank is generally
shallow. If they find on the margin a large tree, which can be
made to fall into the water, they begin with cutting it down, to
form the principal part of their work. This tree is often thicker
than the body of a man. By gnawing the foot of the tree with
their four cutting teeth, they accomplish their purpose in a very
short time, and always make the tree fall across the river. They
next cut the branches from the trunk, to make it lie level. These
operations are performed by the whole community. Several beavers
are employed in gnawing the foot of the tree, and others in
lopping off the branches after it has fallen. Others, at the same
time, traverse the banks of the river, and cut down smaller
trees, from the size of a man's leg to that of his thigh. These
they dress, and cut to a certain length, to make stakes of them,
and first drag them by land to the margin of the river, and then
by water to the place where the building is carrying on. These
piles they sink down, and interweave the branches with the larger
stakes. This operation implies the vanquishing of many
difficulties; for, to dress these stakes, and to put them in a
situation nearly perpendicular, some of the beavers must elevate,
with their teeth, the thick ends against the margin of the river,
or against the cross-tree, while others plunge to the bottom, and
dig holes with their fore-feet, to receive the points,[29] that
they may stand on end. When some are labouring in this manner,
others bring earth, which they plash [sic] with their feet, and
beat firm with their tails. They carry the earth in their mouths,
and with their fore-feet, and transport it in such quantities,
that they fill with it all the intervals between the piles. These
piles consist of several rows of stakes, or equal height, all
placed opposite to each other, and extend from one bank of the
river to the other. The states facing the under part of the
river, are placed perpendicularly; but the rest of work slopes
upwards to sustain the pressure of the fluid; so that the bank,
which is 10 or 12 feet wide at the base, is reduced to two or
three at the top. It has, therefore, not only all the necessary
thickness and solidity, but the most advantageous form for
supporting the weight of the water, for preventing its issue, and
to repel its efforts. Near the top, or thinnest part of the bank,
they make two or three sloping holes, to allow the surface-water
to escape, and these they enlarge or contract, according as the
river rises or falls; and, when any breaches are made in the bank
by sudden or violent inundations, they know how to repair them as
soon as the water subsides.
It would be superfluous, after this account of
their public work, to give a details of their particular
operations, were it not necessary, in a history of these animals,
to mention every fact, and were not the first great structure
made with a [30] view to render their smaller habitations more
commodious. These cabins or houses are built upon piles near the
margin of the pond, and have two openings, the one for going to
the land, and the other for throwing themselves into the water.
The form of the edifices is either oval or round, some of them
larger and some less, varying from four or five, to eight or ten
feet diameter. Some of them consist of three or four stories; and
their walls are about two feet thick, raised perpendicularly upon
planks, or plain stakes, which serve both for foundations and
floors to their houses. When they consist but of one story, the
walls rise perpendicularly only a few feet, afterwards assume a
curved form, and terminate in a dome or vault, which serves them
for a roof. They are built with amazing solidity, and neatly
plastered both without and within. They are impenetrable to rain,
and resist the most impetuous winds. The partitions are covered
with a kind of stucco, as nicely plastered as if it had been
executed by the hand of man. In the application of this mortar,
their tails serve for trowels, and their feet for plashing [sic].
They employ different materials, as wood, stone, and a kind of
sandy earth, which is not subject to dissolution in water. The
wood they use is almost all of the light and tender kinds, as
alders, poplars, and willows, which generally grow on the banks
of rivers, and are more easily barked, cut, and transported, than
the heavier and more solid species of timber. When [31] they once
attack a tree, they never abandon it till they cut it down, and
carry it off. They always begin the operation of cutting at a
foot, or a foot and a half about the ground: They labour in a
sitting posture; and, beside the convenience of this situation,
they enjoy the pleasure of gnawing perpetually the bark and wood,
which are most palatable to their taste; for they prefer fresh
bark and tender wood to most of their ordinary aliment. Of these
provisions they lay up ample stores, to support them during the
winter;* but they are not fond of dry wood. It is in the water,
and near their habitations, that they establish their magazines.
Each cabin has its own magazine, proportioned to the number of
its inhabitants, who have all a common right to the stores and
never pillage their neighbours. Some villages are composed of
twenty or twenty-five cabins. But these large establishments are
rare; and the common republic seldom exceeds ten or twelve
families, of which each has its own quarter of the village, his
own magazine, and his separate habitation. They allow not
strangers to set down in their neighbourhood. The smallest cabins
contain two, four, or six; and the largest [32] eighteen, twenty,
and, it is alledged, sometimes thirty beavers. They are almost
always equally paired, being the same number of females as of
males. Thus, upon a moderate computation, the society is often
composed of 150 or 200, who all, at first, laboured jointly, in
raising the great public building, and afterwards in select
tribes or companies, in making particular habitations. In this
society, however numerous, an universal peace is maintained.
Their union is cemented by common labours; and it is rendered
perpetual by mutual convenience, and the abundance of provisions
which they amass and consume together. Moderate appetites, a
simple taste, an aversion against blood and carnage, deprive them
of the idea of rapine and war. They enjoy every possible good,
while man only knows how to pant after it. Friends to each other,
if they have some foreign enemies, they know how to avoid them.
When danger approaches, they advertise one another, by striking
their tail on the surface of the water, the noise of which is
heard at a great distance, and resounds through all the vaults of
their habitations. Each takes his part; some plunge into the
lake, others conceal themselves within their walls, which can
only be penetrated by the fire of heaven, or the steel of man,
and which no animals will attempt either to open or to overturn.
These retreats are not only very safe, but neat and commodious.
The floors are spread over with verdure: The branches of the box
and the [33] fir serve them for carpets, upon which they permit
not the least dirtiness. The window that faces the water answers
for a balcony to receive the fresh air, and to bathe. During the
greatest part of the day, they sit on end, with their head and
anterior parts of the body elevated, and their posterior parts
sunk in the water. This window is made with caution, the aperture
of which is sufficiently raised to prevent its being stopped up
with the ice, which, in the beaver climates, is often two or
three feet thick. When this happens, they slope the sole of the
window, cut obliquely the stakes which support it, and thus open
communication with the unfrozen water. This element is so
necessary, or rather so agreeable to them, that they can seldom
dispense with it. They often swim a long way under the ice: It is
then that they are most easily taken, by attacking the cabin on
one hand, and, at the same time, watching at a hole made at some
distance, where they are obliged to repair for the purposes of
respiration. the continual habit of keeping their tail and
posterior parts in the water, appears to have changed the nature
of their flesh. That of their anterior parts, as far as the
reins, has the taste and consistence of the flesh of land or air
animals; but that of the tail and posteriors has the odour and
all the other qualities of fish. The tail, which is a foot long,
an inch thick, and five or six inches broad, is even an extremity
or genuine portion of a fish, attached to the body of a
quadruped: it is entirely covered with scales, [34] and with a
skin perfectly similar to those of large fishes. They may be
scraped off with a knife, and, after falling, they leave an
impression on the skin, as is the case with all fishes.
It is in the beginning of summer that the
beavers assemble. They employ the months of July and August in
the construction of their bank and cabins. They collect, in
September, their provisions of bark and wood: Afterwards they
enjoy the fruits of their labours, and taste the sweets of
domestic happiness. This is the time of repose, and the season of
love. Knowing and loving one another from habit, from the
pleasures and fatigues of a common labour, each couple join not
by chance, nor by the pressing necessities of nature, but unite
from choice and from taste. They pass together the autumn and the
winter: Perfectly satisfied with each other, they never separate.
At ease in their cabins, they go not out but upon agreeable or
useful excursions, to bring in supplies of fresh bark, which they
prefer to what is too dry or too moistened with water. The
females are said to go pregnant for four months; they bring forth
in the end of winter, and generally produce two or three young
ones. About this time, they are left by the males, who retire to
the country to enjoy the pleasures and the fruits of the spring.
they return, occasionally, to their cabins; but dwell there no
more. The mothers continue in the cabins, and are occupied in
nursing, protecting, and rearing their [35] young, who, at the
end of a few weeks, are in a condition to follow their dams. The
females, in their turn, make little excursions to recruit
themselves by the air, by eating fishes, crabs, and fresh bark,
and, in this manner, pass the summer upon the waters, and in the
woods. They assemble not again till autumn, unless their banks or
cabins be overturned by inundations; for, when accidents of this
kind happen, they suddenly collect their forces, in order to
repair the breaches which have been made.
Some places they prefer to others for their
habitation, and they have been observed, after having their
labours frequently destroyed, to return every summer to repair
them, till, being fatigued with this persecution, and weakened by
the loss of several of their numbers, they took the resolution of
changing their abode, and of retiring to solitudes still more
profound. It is in winter that they are chiefly sought by the
hunters; because their fur is not perfectly sound in any other
season: And, after their village is ruined, and numbers of them
are taken, the society is sometimes too much reduced to admit of
a fresh establishment; but those which escape death or captivity,
disperse and become vagabond. Their genius, withered by fear,
never again expands. They hide themselves, and their talents, in
holes; or sunk to the condition of other animals, they lead a
timid and a solitary life. Occupied only by pressing wants, and
exerting solely their indivi- [36] dual powers, they lose forever
those social qualities which we have been so justly admiring.
However marvellous the society and the
operation I have now described may appear, it is impossible to
doubt of their reality. all the facts mentioned by numbers of
eye-witnesses,* corresponding with those I have related: And, if
my narration differ from some which have been given, it is only
in a few points that I judged too marvellous and improbable to be
credited. Authors have not limited themselves to the social
manners of the beavers, and to their evident talents for
architecture, but have ascribed to them general ideas of police
and of government. They have affirmed, that, after the beavers
have esta- [37] blished a society, they reduce strangers and
travellers of their own species into slavery; that these they
employ to carry out their earth and to drag their trees; that
they treat in the same manner the lazy and the old of their own
society; that they turn them on their backs, and make them serve
as vehicles for the carriage of their materials; that these
republicans never associate but in an odd number, in order to
have always a casting voice in their deliberations; that each
tribe has its chief; that they have established sentinels for the
public safety; that, when pursued, they tear off their testicles,
to satisfy the avarice of their hunters; that, in this mutilated
state, they exhibit themselves to procure the compassion of their
persecutors,* &c. In proportion as we reject with contempt
those exaggerated fables, we must admit the facts which are
established and confirmed by moral certainties. The works of this
animal have been a thousand times viewed, measured, overturned,
designed, and engraven. What is still more convincing, some of
these singular works still subsist, though less common than when
North America was first discovered, and have been seen by all the
missionaries, and all the latest travellers who have penetrated
into the northern regions of that continent.
It is universally agreed, that, beside the
beavers who live in society, there are, in the same climate, [38]
others who are solitary, and rejected, it is said, from the
social state for their crimes, reaping none of its advantages,
having neither house nor magazine, and living, like the badger,
in holes under the ground. These solitary beavers are called
terriers. They live, like the other kind, upon banks of waters,
where some of them make a ditch of several feet deep, in order to
form a pond that may reach to the mouth of their hole, which
frequently exceeds 100 feet in length, and all along slopes
upward, to facilitate their retreat, in proportion as the water
rises during inundations. But there are other solitary beavers,
which live at a considerable distance from water. All our
European beavers are terriers and solitary, and their fur is not
near so valuable as that of those which live in society. They
differ in colour, according to the climate they inhabit. In the
northern deserts, they are perfectly black, and their furs are
finest; but, even there, some are found entirely white, others
white spotted with gray, and others with a mixture of red upon
the nap of the neck and haunches.* In proportion as they recede
from the north, their colour turns clearer and more mixed. In the
north of Canada they are chesnut [sic] coloured; farther south,
they are bay, and of a [39] pale straw colour among the Ilinois*.
In America, beavers are found from the 30th degree of north
latitude to beyond the 60th. They are very frequent in the north,
and gradually decrease as we advance southward. the same thing
holds in the Old Continent: They never appear in numbers but in
the northern regions; and they are very rare in France, Spain,
Italy, Greece, and Egypt. They were known to the antients [sic].
The religion of the Magi prohibited the killing of beavers. They
were common on the margin of the Pontus Euxinus, and were
distinguished by the name of Canes Pontici: But they probably
were not quiet enough in this situation, (for the coasts of this
country have been frequented by men from the earliest periods of
history), since their society and labours are mentioned by none
of the antients. Ælian, in particular, who betrays so strong an
affection for the marvellous, and who, I believe, first advanced
that the beaver cut off his testicles to allow them to be
collected by the hunters,+ would never have failed to mention the
wonders of their republic, and their talents for architecture.
Even Pliny himself, whose bold, sublime, and melancholy genius,
made him uniformly despise men to exalt Nature, could not have
abstained from comparing the labours of Romulus to those of the
beavers. It is, therefore, apparent, that their industry in
building [40] was altogether unknown to the antients; and,
although cabined beavers have lately been found in Norway, and in
other northern regions of Europe, and though it is probable that
the antient beavers built as well as the modern; yet, as the
Romans never penetrated so far north, it is not surprising that
their writers are silent on this subject.
Several authors have affirmed, that the beaver,
being an aquatic animal, could not live upon land, without water.
But this notion is false; for the young beaver sent me from
Canada was always kept in the house; and, when first presented to
water, it was afraid, and refused to enter into that element.
But, after being forced and retained in a bason [sic], it grew so
easy in a few minutes, that it made no attempts to get out; and,
when left at liberty, it often returned to the water
spontaneously. It likewise avails itself of the mire and moist
pavements. One day he escaped, and descended by the stair into
the subterraneous vaults in the royal garden. He continued for
some time to swim on the stagnant water in the bottom of these
vaults. However, as soon as he saw the light of the torches which
were brought to search for him, he returned to those who called
him, and allowed himself quietly to be taken. He is familiar,
without being caressing: He asks to eat from those who are at
table; and his petitions consist of a small plaintive cry, and
some gestures with his hand. when he re- [41] ceives a morsel, he
carries off and conceals it, to be eaten at leisure. He sleeps
pretty often, reposing on his belly. He eats every thing [sic],
excepting flesh, which he constantly refuses, whether it be raw
or roasted. He gnaws every thing he can find, stuffs, furniture,
wood, &c.; and we have been obliged to line, with a double
coat of white-iron, the barrel in which he was transported.
Thought the beavers prefer the margins of
lakes, rivers, and other fresh waters; yet they are found in the
sea-coasts, but principally on the Mediterranean gulfs which
receive great rivers, where the water has not its usual saltness.
They are hostile to the otter, whom they chace [sic], and will
not permit to appear in the waters they frequent. The fur of the
beaver is finer and more bushy than that of the otter: It
consists of two kinds of hair; the one, which is short, but
bushy, fine as down, and impenetrable by water, immediately
covers the skin; the other, which is longer, firmer, more
splendid, but thinner, serves the former as a surtout, defending
it from dust and dirt. This second kind of hair is of little
value; it is the first alone that is employed in our
manufactures. The black furs are generally most bushy, and
consequently in greatest esteem. The fur of the terrier beaver is
much inferior to that of the cabin-building kind. the beavers,
like all other quadrupeds, cast their hair in summer; and the
furs of those caught during the season are of little va- [42]
lue. The fur of the white beaver is greatly esteemed, upon
account of its rarity; and the perfectly black furs are nearly as
the white.
But, beside the fur, which is the most precious
article, the beaver furnishes a matter, of which great use has
been made in medicine. This matter, called castoreum, is
contained in two large bags or bladders, which the antients
mistook for the testicles of the animal. We shall here give
neither the description nor the uses of that substance,* because
they are to be found in all our dispensatories.+ The savages, it
is said, extract an oil from the tail of the beaver, and use it
as a topical application for several diseases. the flesh of the
beaver, though fat and delicate, has always a disagreeable
flavour. The bones are said to be excessively hard; but,
concerning this fact, we have had no opportunities of
determining, because we only dissected a young one. Their teeth
are very hard, and so sharp, that they are used by the savages as
knives to cut, hollow, and polish their timber. The savages
clothe themselves with beavers skins; and, in winter, turn the
shaggy side inward; and these, from their having imbibed much
sweat from the perspiration of [43] their wearers, are called
fat-beaver, or coat-beaver, and are only employed for coarse
works.
The beaver uses his fore-feet, like hands, with
equal dexterity as the squirrel, the toes being well separated;
but those of the hind-feet are united by a membrane. These they
employ as fins, and extend them like the toes of a goose, which
animal they resemble in their walking on land. The beaver swims
better than he runs: As his fore-legs are much shorter than the
hind ones, he always walks with his head low, and his back
arched. His senses are extremely delicate, especially the sense
of smelling. Dirtiness and bad smells seem to be perfectly
insupportable to him. When retained in confinement too long, and
obliged to void his excrements, he places them near the threshold
of the door, and, as soon as it is opened, he pushes them out.
This habit of cleanliness is natural to them; and our young
beaver never failed, in this manner, to clean his habitation. At
the age of twelve months, he exhibited the marks of ardour for a
female, which renders it probable that he had then nearly
attained his full growth. Hence the duration of life in these
animals cannot be very long; perhaps it is too much to extend it
to fifteen or twenty years. It is not astonishing that this
beaver was smaller than others of his age, having been
perpetually confined almost from his birth; and, being
unacquainted with water till he was nine months old, he could
neither grow nor ex- [44] pand like those who enjoy liberty and
the use of that element, which appears to be equally necessary to
them as the land.
Supplement
We formerly remarked, that the beaver was an
animal common to both Continents; and they are, in fact, as
frequent in Siberia as in Canada. They may be easily tamed, and
even taught to fish, and to bring home their prey to the family.
M. Kalm assures us of this fact:
"I have seen in America," says he,
"beavers so fully tamed, that, when sent out to fish, they
brought home the booty to their master. I have also seen others
which were so familiar with their masters, and with the dogs,
that they followed them, accompanied them in the boats, jumped
into the water, and, in a moment after, returned with a
fish."*
"We have seen," says M. Gmelin,
"in a small village of Siberia, a beaver that was brought up
in the house, and was so exceedingly tractable, that he sometimes
made voyages to a considerable distance, decoyed females, and
brought them home; after the season of love was over, these
females returned without any conductor."+
* See concerning the history of beavers, Olaus
Magnus dans la description des pays septenrionnaus; les voyes du
Baron de la Hontan, tom. II. p. 155 & suiv. Musaeum
Wormianum, p. 320; l'histoire de l'Amérique sepentrionale par
Bacqueville de la Poterie, Rouen, 1722, tome I. p. 133; Memoire
sur le castor, par M. Sarrafin, inféré dans les Mémoires de
l'Académie des Sciences, année, 1704; la relation d'un voyage
en Acadie, par Dierville, Rouen, 1708. p. 126 & suiv. les
nouvelles découvertes dan l'Amérique septentrionale, Paris,
1697, p. 133; l'Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, par le P.
Charlevoix, Paris 1744, tome II. p. 98 & suiv le voyage de
Robert Lade, traduit de l'Anglois par M. l'abbé Prevost, tome
II. p. 226; le grand voyage au pays des Hurons, par Sagard
Theodat, Paris, 1632, p. 319 & suiv. le voyage à la Baie de
Hudson, par Ellis, Paris, 1749, tome II, p. 61. & 62. Voyez
aussi Gesner, Aldrovande, Johnston, Klein, &c á l'article du
Castor; le traité du castor par Jean Marius, Paris, 1746,
l'histoire de la Virginie, traduite de l'Anglois, Orleans 1707,
p. 406.; l;Histoire Naturelle du P. Rzacynsky, à l'article du
Castor, &c. &c. [back to page 37].
*See Ælian, and all the antients, except
Pliny, who, like a philosopher, denies the fact. For the other
articles, see most of the authors quoted in the preceeding
footnote [back to page 38].
*Castor albus, cauda horizontaliter plana;
Brisson. Regn. Anim. p. 94 [back to page 39].
*Hist. de la Nouvelle France, par le P.
Charlevoix, tom 2. p. 94 [back to page 40].
+Hist. anim. lib. 6. cap. 34 [back to
page 40].
*See Le Traité du castor, par Marius et
Francus [back to page 40].
+It is alledged that the beavers press out this
liquor with their feet, that it restores their appetite after a
disgust, and that the savages rub the snares with it which they
lay for apprehending them. It is more certain, however, that they
use this liquor for greasing their hair [back to page 40].
*Voyage de Kalm, tom. 2. p. 350 [back to page
45].
+Voyage de Kamtchatka, p. 73 [back to page 45].
* the beaver has two cutting teeth in each jaw,
five toes on each foot, and a tail compressed, and covered with
scales. He has strong cutting teeth, short ears hid in the fur, a
blunt nose, hair of a deep chestnut brown, a broad, almost oval,
tail, compressed horizontally, and with scales; the forfeet are
small, and the hind feet large; the length, from nose to tail, is
about three fee; and the tail is eleven inches long, and three
broad; Pennan's synops. of quad.
In Greek [the word is then written in Greek,
but my keyboard won't let me reproduce the letters here], in
Italian, Bivaro, Bevero; in Spanish, Bevaro; in German, Biber; in
Swedish, Baeffwer; in Polish, Bobr; in French, Le Castor, or Le
Biévre.
Castor; Gesner, Hist. quad. p. 309. Icon quad.
p. 84.
Castor five fiver; Ray, synops. quad. p. 209.
Klein. quad. p. 91
Castor castanei coloris, cuada horizontaliter
plana; Brisson. Regn. anim. p. 133.
Castor fiber, cauda ovata plana; Linn. syst. p.
78. [page 21]
*See above, vol. III. dissertation on the
nature of animals. [page 23]
*This beaver was taken when very young, and
transmitted to me, in the beginning of the year 1758, by M. de
Mountbelliard, a captain of the Royal Artillery. [page 26]
+We are told, however, by M. Klein, that he fed
a beaver during several years, and that it followed, and went in
quest of him, as doggs search for their masters. [page 26]
*The largest beavers weigh 50 or 60 pounds, and
exceed not three feet in length, from the end of the muzzle to
the origin of the tail. [page 28]
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