_Hunter._ Beavers build themselves houses on the banks of creeks or small rivers, with mud, sticks, and stones, and afterwards cover them over with a coat of mud, which becomes very hard. These houses are five or six feet thick at the top; and in one house four old beavers, and six or eight young ones, often live together. But, besides their houses, the beavers take care to have a number of holes in the banks, under water, called _washes_, into which they can run for shelter, should their houses be attacked. It is the business of the trappers to find out all these washes, or holes; and this they do in winter, by knocking against the ice, and judging by the sound whether it is a hole. Over every hole they cut out a piece of ice, big enough to get at the beaver. No sooner is the beaver-house attacked, than the animals run into their holes, the entrances of which are directly blocked up with stakes. The trappers then either take them through the holes with their hands, or haul them out with hooks fastened to the end of a pole or stick. [Illustration] _Austin._ But why is a beaver hunter called a trapper? I cannot understand that. _Hunter._ Because beavers are caught in great numbers in steel traps, which are set and baited on purpose for them. _Brian._ Why do they not catch them in the summer? _Hunter._ The fur of the beaver is in its prime in the winter; in the summer, it is of inferior quality. _Austin._ Do the trappers catch many beavers? I should think there could not be very many of them. _Hunter._ In one year, the Hudson's Bay Company alone sold as many as sixty thousand beaver-skins; and it is not a very easy matter to take them, I can assure you. _Austin._ Sixty thousand! I did not think there were so many beavers in the world.