The fox, the ground-hog and some other creatures dig holes in the ground, sometimes under and between rocks, in which to hide and escape from being caught by an enemy, and for a safe place to rest and sleep. The squirrels will seek places in hollow trees for their safety. The bears, which were here in former times, when cold weather commenced in November or December retired from the open woods into those which were thickly timbered with hemlock, and there sought and made places under rocks and roots of trees in which to lay up all winter, and continued in their respective places without eating all winter and remained fat. Hunters from this neighborhood sometimes went there in former times, in February or March when warm weather commenced, and found them with their dogs, and killed them in their holes, in which some were confined by the frost of the ground and were fat. The beaver performs the greatest work of the animal species, which comprehends a more extensive source of enjoyments than what any other creatures have achieved, all of which appears to be a preconcerted plan of their own to obtain the results of their labors, but still may be, as some have thought, an instinct of their natures to do it without design. A company of beavers will unite, select the best place to build a dam across a stream of water where they can overflow the greatest extent of ground by damming the stream, and the company will all engage in the work cutting down brush and saplings with their teeth and bringing the same to the place selected for a dam, and there place them in the stream so as to form a dam, for which they make use of mud, clay and ground, to intermix with the brush, so as to confine in the dam both brush, ground, &c., and also to make it tight. After this work is all completed, a male and female will unite and dig a hole in the side of a bank, which the water will not overflow in times of freshets, and commence to dig it under water and raise gradually until they get into dry ground above the surface level of the water in times of freshets, where they make a place in which to lay, repose and sleep in safety, where wolves, dogs and enemies of every kind cannot find them. The pond also becomes a safe place for them, in which they can have their sportive exercises and furnish them with food. There was in ancient times a beaver-dam in this town near the bridge across Basha's Kill, on the land of Abraham Cuddeback, Esq., which dammed the water so as to overflow a large tract of bog meadow land above the bridge. There also was a beaver-dam across the Old Dam Brook, on the land of Abraham J. Cuddeback, Esq., which also overflowed a tract of swamp and bog meadow land. There undoubtedly have been others in ancient times in this town. These were the two best places in this part of the town for Beaver dams, and were on streams not subject to freeze much.