conftant hard labour, foon make the 3 makes it fit light on thofe whofe lot it is to bear it. It is neceffary to obferve, that when the men kill any large beaft, the women are always fent to bring it to the tent: when it is brought there, every operation it undergoes, fuch as fplitting, drying, pounding, &c. is performed by the women. When any thing is to be prepared for eating, it is the women who cook it; and when it is done, the wives and daughters of the greatest captains in the country are never ferved, till all the males, even those who are in the capacity of fervants, have eaten what they think proper; and in times of fcarcity, it is frequently their lot to be left without a fingle morfel. It is, however, natural to think they take the liberty of helping themfelves in fecret; but this must be done with great prudence, as capital embezzlements of provi fions in fuch times are looked on as affairs of real confequence, and frequently fubject them to a very fevere beating. If they are practifed by a woman whofe youth and inattention to domeftic concerns cannot plead in her favour, they will for ever be a blot in her character, and few men will chufe to have her for a wife. It may appear ftrange, that while I am extolling the chastity of the northern Indian women, I should acknowledge that it is a very common cuftom among the men of this country to exchange a night's lodging with each other's wives. But this is fo far from being confidered as an act which is criminal, that it is efteemed by them as one of the ftrongeft ties of friendship between two families; and in cafe of the death of either man, the other confiders himfelf bound to fupport the children of the deceased. Thofe people are fo far from viewing this engagement as a mere ceremony, like most of our M * The flone here meant is fourteen pounds, chriftian christian god-fathers and god-mothers, who, notwithstanding their vows are made in the most folemn manner, and in the presence of both God and man, fcarcely ever after ward remember what they have promifed, that there is not an inftance of a northern Indian having once neglected the duty which he is fupposed to have taken upon himself to perform. The fouthern Indians, with all their bad qualities, are remarkably humane and charitable to the widows and children of departed friends; and as their fituation and manner of life enable them to do more acts of charity with lefs trou ble than falls to the lot of a northern Indian, few widows or orphans are ever unprovided for among them. Though the northern, Indian men make no fcruple of having two or three fifters for wives at one time, yet they are very párticular in obferving a proper distance in the confanguinity of those they admit to the above-mentioned intercourfe with their wives. The fouthern Indians are less scrupulous on those occafions; among them it is not at all uncommon for one brother to make free with another brother's wife or daughter; but this is held in abhorrence by the northern Indians. A NEW DESCRIPTION OF THE BEAVER, FROM THE SAME. THE "HE fituation of the beaver-houses, the water is liable to be drained off is various. Where the beavers when the back fupplies are dried up are numerous they are found to in by the froft, are wonderfully taught habit lakes, ponds, and rivers, as well by inftinét to provide against that as those narrow creeks which connect evil, by making a dam quite across the numerous lakes with which the the river, at a convenient diftance Northern Ocean abounds; but the two from their houfes. This I look upon Jatter, are generally chofen by them as the most curious piece of workmanwhen the depth of water and other fhip that is performed by the beaver; circumstances are fuitable, as they not fo much for the peatness of have then the advantage of a current the work, as for its ftrength and real to convey wood and other neceffaries fervice; and at the fame time it difto their habitations, and because, in covers fuch a degree of fagacity and general, they are more difficult to be forefight in the animal, of approachtaken than those that are built in ing evils, as is little inferior to that flanding water. of the human fpecies, and is certainly peculiar to thofe animals. There is no one particular part of a lake, pond, river, or creek, of which the beavers make choice for building their houfes on, in prefer ence to another; for they fometimes build on points, fometimes in the hollow of a bay, and often on small iflands; they always choofe, how ever, thofe parts that have fuch a depth of water as will refift the froft in winter, and prevent it from freez irg to the bottom. The beaver that build their houfes in fmall rivers or creeks, in which The beaver-dams differ in fhape according to the nature of the place in which they are built. If the was ter in the river or creek have but little motion, the dam is almost ftraight; but when the current is more rapid, it is always made with a confiderable curve, convex toward the ftream. The materials made ufe of in thofe dams are drift-wood, green willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got; alfo mud and ftones, intermixed in fuch a manner as must evidently evidently contribute to the strength of the dam; but in thefe dams there is no other order or method obferyed, except that of the work being carried on with a regular fweep, and all the parts being made of equal ftrength. In places which have been long frequented by beaver undisturbed, their dams, by frequent repairing, become a folid bank, capable of refifting a great force both of water and ice; and as the willow, poplar, and birch, generally take root and shoot up, they by degrees form a regular-planted hedge, which I have feen in fome places fo tall, that birds -have built their nefts among the branches. Though the beaver which build their houses in lakes, and other ftanding waters, may enjoy a fufficient quantity of their favourite element without the affiftance of a dam, the trouble of getting wood and other neceffaries to their habitations with out the help of a current, muft in fome measure counterbalance the other advantages which are reaped from such a situation; for it must be obferved, that the beaver which build in rivers and creeks, always cut their wood above their houfes, fo that the current, with little trouble, conveys it to the place required. The beaver-houses are built of the fame materials as their dams, and are always proportioned in fize to the number of inhabitants, which feldom exceed four old, and 6 or 8 young ones; though, by chance, I have seen above double that number. These houses, though not altogether unworthy of admiration, fall very short of the general defcription given of them; for instead of order or regulation being obferved in rearing them, they are of a much ruder ftructure than their dams. Thofe who have undertaken to describe the infide of beaver-houses, as having feveral apartments appro 3 priated to various ufes; fuch as eat- It frequently happens, that fome. of the large houfes are found to have one or more partitions, if they deferve that appellation; but that is no more than a part of the main building, left by the fagacity of the bea ver to fupport the roof. On fuch occafions it is common for those different apartments, as fome are pleafed to call them, to have no commu nication with each other but by water. To deny that the beaver is poffef fed of a very confiderable degree of fagacity, would be as abfurd in mej as it is in thofe authors who think they cannot allow them too much. I fhall willingly grant them their full fhare; but it is impoffible for any one to conceive how, or by what means, a beaver, whofe full height when standing erect does not exceed two feet and a half, or three feet at moft, and whofe fore-paws are not much larger than a half-crown piece, can "drive ftakes as thick as a man's leg into the ground three or four feet deep." Their" wattling thofe ftakes with twigs," is equally abfurd; and their plaiftering the infide of their houfes with a compoM 2 fition fition of mud and straw, and swim-up between them, under their throat, that they carry both mud and stones, while they always drag the wood with their teeth. ming with mud and ftones on their tails," are still more incredible. The form and fize of the animal, notwithftanding all its fagacity, will not admit of its performing fuch feats; and it would be as impoffible for a beaver to use its tail as a trowel, except on the fúrface of the ground on which it walks, as it would have been for Sir James Thornhill to have painted the dome of St Paul's cathedral without the affiftance of fcaffolding. The joints of their tail will not admit of their turning it over their backs on any occafion whatever, as it has a natural inclination to bend downwards; and it is not without fome confiderable exertion that they can keep it from trailing on the ground. This being the cafe, they cannot fit erect like a fquirrel, which is their common pofure, particularly when eating, or when they are cleaning themfelves, as a cat or fquirrel does, without having their tails bent forward between their legs, and which may not improperly be called their trencher. So far are the beaver from driv ing takes into the ground when building their houfes, that they lay moit of the wood crofswife, and nearly horizontal, and without any other order than that of leaving a hollow or cavity in the middle: when any unneceflary branches project inward, they cut them off with their teeth, and throw them in among the reft, to prevent the mud from falling through the roof. It is a mistaken notion, that the wood-work is firft, completed and then plaiftered; for the whole of their houfes, as well as their dams, are from the foundation, one mass of wood and mud, mixed with tones, if they can be procured. The mud is always taken from the edge of the bank, or the bottom of the creek or pond, near the door of the houfe; and though their forepaws are fo fmall, yet it is held clofe All their work is executed in the night: and they are fo expeditious in completing it, that in the courfe of one night I have known them to have collected as much mud at their houses as to have amounted to fome thoufands of their little handfuls: and when any mixture of grafs or ftraw has appeared in it, it has been moft affuredly mere chance, owing to the nature of the ground from which they had taken it. As to their defignedly making a compofition for that purpose, it is entirely void of truth. It is a great piece of policy in thofe animals, to cover, or plaifter, as it is ufually called, the outfide of their houfes every fall with fresh mud, and as late as poffible in the autumn, even when the froft becomes pretty fevere: as by this means it foon freezes as hard as a stone, and prevents their common enemy, the quiquehatch, from difturbing them during the winter. And as they are frequently feen to walk over their work, and fometimes to give a flap with their tail, particularly when plunging into the water, this has, without doubt, given rife to the vul, gar opinion, that they use their tails as a trowel, with which they plaifter their houfes; whereas that flapping of the tail is no more than a custom, which they always prefeive, even when they become tame and domestic, and more fo when they are startled. Their food chiefly confifts of a large root, fomething refembling a cabbage-ftalk, which grows at the bottom of the lakes and rivers, They eat alfo the bark of trees, particularly that of the poplar, birch, and willow; but the ice preventing them from getting to the land in winter, they have not any barks to feed upon during that feafon, except that of of fuch fticks as they cut down in fummer, and throw into the water oppofite the doors of their houfes; and as they generally eat a great deal, the roots above mentioned conftitute a chief part of their food during the winter. In fummer they vary their diet, by eating various kinds of herbage, and fuch berries as grow near their haunts during that feafon. When the ice breaks up in the fpring, the beaver always leave their houfes, and rove about the whole fummer,probably in fearch of a more con:modious fituation; but in cafe of not fucceeding in their endeavours, they return again to their old habitations a D little before the fall of the leaf, and lay in their winter flock of woods. They feldom begin to repair the hopfes till the froft commences, and never furnish the outer-coat till the cold is pretty fevere, as hath been already mentioned. When they thift their habitations, or when the increase of their number renders it neceffary to make fome addition to their houses, or to erect new ones, they begin felling the wood for thefe purposes early in the fummer, but feldom begin to build till the middle or latter end of Auguft, and never complete their houfes till the cold weather be fet in. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS PUBLISHED IN MAY 1796. Theology, Morals. ISCOURSES on the Providence and Government of God. By Newcome Cappe. 8vo. 4s. boards. Johnfon. Sober and Serious Reafons for Scepticism on revealed Religion. By J. Hollis. Is. Johnfon. Moral Beauties of Clarendon, compiled from his Reflections and Palms, &c. 2 vols. 12mo. 75. Rivingtons. Advice to a Young Clergyman, upon entering into Prieta' Orders. 2s. 6d. ibid. Caufes of the Contempt of the Clergy. 64. Dilly. An Attempt to render the Daily Reading of the Pfalms more intelligible. By E. T. Travell. 8vo. 7s. 6d. boards. Rivingtons. Remarks on Religious Opinions. By R. W. Johnfon. 25. Johníon. Thomas Paine vindicated, in a Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff. Is. Crofby. Claud's Effay on the Compofition of a Sermon tranflated by Robinfon, with, Ioo Sketches of Sermons. By C. Simeon. 10s. boards. Matthews. Confiderations on Theocracy. 8vo. 4s. boards. Johnfo n. Sermons preached at Manchefter. By J. Clowes. Vol. 2. 2s. 6d. boards. Rivingtons. Edinburgh. By R. Walker, Vol. 4. 69. bds. Kay. Sermon before the Sons of the Clergy, May 7. By C. P. Layard. 18. Ris vingtons. Sermon recommending the Litany. By A. Macauly. 4to. 18. Dilly. on the Nature and Ufes of the human Imagination. By W. Jones. 18. Rivingtons. at Whitby, on the Faft Day. By T. Watton. Is. Murray and Co. at Wickham, on the Same. By J. Pickering. IS. Gardner. at St James's. By W. Holcombe. Is. Whites. before the Commons on the fame. By R. Holmes. 19. Payne. A Eay on the Originality and Permanency of the Biblical Hebrew. By G. Fitzgerald, D. D. 8vo. 6s. boards. Robinfons. Metaphyfics. Difquifitions on Power and human Pre- Biography. |