oftener when practicable, selecting a spot in the stream
where many trees had been cut down by beavers for the
purpose of damming up the water. In some places as
many as fifty tree stumps were seen in one spot, within
the compass of half an acre, all cut through at about
eighteen inches from the root. We may remark, in
passing, that the beaver is very much like a gigantic
water-rat, with this marked difference, that its tail is
very broad and flat like a paddle. The said tail is a
greatly-esteemed article of food, as, indeed, is the whole