sur le fleuue glacé, portans vn long baston en main, armé d'vn costé d'vne tranche de fer, faite comme vn ciseau de Menuisier, & de l'autre d'vn os de Baleine, comme ie croy; ils sondent la glace auec cest os, frappans dessus & prenans garde si elle sonne creux, & si elle donne quelque indice de sa concauité, alors ils couppent la glace auec la tranche de fer, regardãs si l'eau n'est point agitée par le mouuement ou par la respiration du Castor: si l'eau remuë, ils ont vn bastõ recourbé qu'ils fourrent dans le trou qu'ils viennent de faire, s'ils sentent le Castor, ils le tuẽt auec leur grand baston, qu'ils appellent _ca oui_k_achit_, & le tirans de l'eau, en vont faire curée tout aussi tost, si ce n'est qu'ils ayent grande esperance d'en prendre d'autres: Ie leur demandois pourquoy le Castor attendoit là qu'on le tuast, où ira il, me disoiẽt ils, sa maison est rompuë, les autres endroits où il peut respirer entre l'eau & la glace sont cassez, il demeure là dans l'eau, cherchant de l'air, cependant on l'assomme, il sort quelquefois [154] par la Cabane, ou par quelque trou, mais les chiens qui sont là, & qui le sentent, & l'attendent, l'ont bien tost attrapé. The other way of taking them under the ice is more noble. Not all the Savages use [152] this method, only the most skillful; they break with blows from the hatchet the Cabin or house of the Beaver, which is indeed wonderfully made. In my opinion no musket ball can pierce it. During the Winter it is built upon the shore of some little river or pond, is two stories high, and round. The materials of which it is composed are wood and mud, so well joined and bound together that I have seen our Savages in Midwinter sweat in trying to make an opening into it with their hatchets. The lower story is in or upon the edge of the water, the upper is above the river. When the cold has frozen the rivers and ponds, the Beaver secludes himself in the upper story, where he has provided himself with wood to eat during the Winter. He sometimes, however, descends from this story to the lower one, and thence he glides out under the ice, through the holes which are in this lower story and which open under the ice. He goes out to drink and to search for the wood that he eats, which grows upon the banks of the pond and in the pond itself. This wood at the bottom is fastened in the ice and the Beaver goes below to cut it and carry it to his house. Now the Savages having broken this house, these poor animals, which are sometimes in great numbers [153] under one roof, disappear under the ice, some on one side, some on the other, seeking hollow and thin places between the water and ice, where they can breathe. Their enemies, knowing this, go walking over the pond or frozen river, carrying a long club in their hands, armed on one side with an iron blade made like a Carpenter's chisel, and on the other