to ensure the falling of the tree upon a lake or across a rivulet. The neatness and convenience of their habitations seem to evince a greater portion of skill and ingenuity than even the dykes, both strength and address being necessary to enable them to plant six stakes in the bed of the water. These are arranged exactly in the centre of the pond, and upon them their house is erected in the form of an oven, being composed of clay, of grass and of branches of trees, to the height of three stages, in order to possess a retreat, by ascending from one to the other when the waters are increased by inundations, caused by the melting of the ice and snows. The floors are made of junks of trees, and each beaver has a distinct apartment. The entrance is from beneath the water, where a large hole is made in the first floor, surrounded by tender branches cut into small pieces, that they may be more easily drawn into the cells when they are inclined to eat; for, as these constitute their principal food, they have the foresight to lay in a great store, particularly in autumn, before the frosts congeal their lake and confine them to their cabins for two or three months. The precaution which they use to establish and maintain order in their republic, and to guard against pursuit, is admirable. All other animals upon earth, however strong, however swift, vigorous and armed by nature, stand in awe of creatures that are capable of injuring them. The beaver, however, seems to have no other foe than man to apprehend. The wolves, the foxes, and the bears, are little solicitous to attack it in its cabin; had they even the faculty of diving, they would not find the event greatly to their profit, for the beaver, with his incisory and penetrating teeth, is capable of maintaining a formidable defence. The beavers are seldom taken in snares, unless they are baited with a species of willow which is rare and of which they are very fond. The mode of taking them in autumn is by making a hole of three or four feet in diameter in the foundation of the dyke, to draw off the water, and the beavers being left dry, the savages find them an easy prey.... In winter, when the waters are frozen, they make holes in the ice around the lodges of the beavers, to which nets are fixed from the one to the other, and when they are properly extended, they uncover with axes the cabins of these poor animals, which, throwing themselves into the water and returning to breathe at the holes, are entangled in the snares, from whence none escape but such as the savages are inclined to exempt from the general havoc. 25. A RAPID ON THE FRASER RIVER (1808). =Source.=--Simon Fraser's "Journal" of the First Descent of the River, printed in Masson's _Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest_. Quebec, 1889-90.