becoming a Christian, learned to read and write, and went on a mission to
teach the poor Indians, who did not know Christ, to worship God in spirit
and in truth. During some months while he was journeying towards a
settlement belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, he wrote a journal of the
things he saw in that wild country; and, among other matters, he made the
following note about the habits of those curious animals the beavers, which
I think is most likely to be correct, as Indians are very observant of the
habits of wild animals. He says,--"The country here is marshy, covered with
low evergreens. Here begins an extensive beaver settlement; it continues up
the river for sixty miles. When travelling with a row-boat, the noise
frightens the timid beavers, and they dive under water; but as we had a
light birch-bark canoe, we saw them at evening and at day-break going to
and fro from their work to the shore. They sleep, during the day, and chop
and gnaw during the night. They cut the wood that they use, from slender
wands up to poles four inches through, and from one to two fathoms long (a
fathom is a measure of six feet). A large beaver will carry in his mouth a
stick I should not like to carry on my shoulder, for two or three hundred
yards to the water, and then float it off to where he wants to take it. The
kinds of trees used by the beavers are willow and poplar--the round-leaved
poplar they prefer. The Canada beavers, where the poplars are large, lumber
(_i.e._ cut down) on a larger scale; they cut trees a foot through, but in
that case only make use of the limbs, which are gnawed off the trunk in
suitable lengths. The beaver is not a climbing animal. About two cords of
wood serve Mister Beaver and his family for the winter. A beaver's house
is large enough to allow two men a comfortable sleeping-room, and it is
kept very clean. It is built of sticks, stones, and mud, and is well
plastered outside and in. The trowel the beaver uses in plastering is his
tail; this is considered a great delicacy at the table. Their beds are made
of chips, split as fine as the brush of an Indian broom; these are disposed
in one corner, and kept dry and sweet and clean. It is the bark of the