beaver. They all live in the water; all separate in the spring, and meet
again in the fall to build and work together; and, having helped each
other in these things, they retire to a private dwelling, each family by
itself. The otter does not make a dam, like the beaver, and I am not sure
that it works in companies, as the beaver; it lives on fish and roots; the
musk-rats on shell-fish and roots, and the beaver on vegetable food
mostly. Musk-rats and beavers are used for food, but the flesh of the
otter is too fishy to be eaten."

"Nurse, can people eat musk-rats?" asked Lady Mary, with surprise.

"Yes, my lady, in the spring months the hunters and Indians reckon them
good food; I have eaten them myself, but I did not like them, they were too
fat. Musk-rats build a little house of rushes, and plaster it; they have
two chambers, and do not lie torpid; they build in shallow, rushy places in
lakes, but in spring they quit their winter houses and are often found in
holes among the roots of trees; they live on mussels and shell-fish. The
fur is used in making caps, and hats, and fur gloves."

"Nurse, did you ever see a tame beaver?"

"Yes, my dear; I knew a squaw who had a tame beaver, which she used to
take out in her canoe with her, and it sat in her lap, or on her shoulder,
and was very playful." Just then the dinner-bell rang, and as dinner at
Government-house waits for no one, Lady Mary was obliged to defer hearing
more about beavers until another time.


[Relocated Footnote: I copy for the reader an account of the beavers,
written by an Indian chief, who was born at Rice Lake, in Canada, and