104 ^^^ ^^^ COUNTRY. When the party reached their destination, the Lieutenant called Mrs Barnett's attention to the great ingenuity displayed by beavera in the construction of their submarine city. There were some hundred animals in the little colony now to be invaded, and they lived together in pairs in the "holes" or "vaults" they had hollowed out near the stream. They had already commenced their preparations for the winter, and were hard at work constructing their dams and laying up their piles of wood. A dam of admirable structure had already been built across the stream, which was deei> and rapid enough not to freeze far below the surface, even in the- severest weather. This dam, which was convex towards the current, consisted of a collection of upright stakes interlaced with branches and roots, the whole being cemented together and rendered water- tight with the clayey mud of the river, previously pounded by the animals' feet. The beavers use their tails — which are large and flat, with scales instead of hair at the root — for plastering over their buildings and beating the clay into shape. ' " The object of this dam," said the Lieutenant to Mrs Barnett, "is to secure to the beavers a sufficient depth of water at all seasons- of the year, and to enable the engineers of the tribe to build the round huts called houses or lodges, the tops of which you can just see. They are extremely solid structures, and the walls made of stick, clay, roots, Ac, are two feet thick. They can only be entered from below the water, and their owners have therefore to dive when they go home — an admirable arrangement for their protection. Each lodge contains two stories ; in the lower the winter stock of branches, bark, and roots, is laid up, and the upper is the residence of the householder and his family." " There is, however, not a beaver in sight," said Mrs Barnett ; " is this a deserted village ? " " Oh no," replied the Lieutenant, " the inhabitants are now all asleep and resting they only work in the night, and we mean to . surprise them in their holes." This was, in fact, easily done, and in an hour's time about a hundred of the ill-fated rodents had been captured, twenty of which were of very great value, their fur being black, and therefore especially esteemed. That of the others was also long, glossy, and silky, but of a reddish hue mixed with chestnut brown. Beneath the long fur, the beavers have a second coat of close short hair of & greyish-white colour. '
