Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/165

Rh and their chief food is bark and aquatic plants, which they collect in large heaps for the winter. Their powerful teeth enable them to gnaw down trees, even of the hardest wood. To obtain a proper depth of running water, with a surface varying little in height, they build a dam on a stream to make a pond, in which to build houses for winter, using trees and branches mixed with stones and mud. They cut their wood up-stream, and float it down. The houses are built where the



water is several feet deep, and their only entrance is at the bottom. They are continued so much above the water as to admit of an upper, dry apartment, approached from the lower, and usually occupied by two or three families. The fur of the American beaver is of a uniform reddish brown, fine, thick, and of the best quality. It was formerly almost wholly used for making hats. It is used for that now; also for gentlemen's caps, mufflers, and gloves. A large portion of it is exported to England.



Nutria fur is obtained from the coypou, or couia, a South American animal resembling the beaver in size and habits, but having a long, round tail. Its similarity, or that of its fur, to the otter and muskrat, may be inferred from its names: nutria meaning otter, and myopotamus river-mouse. In fact, Molina speaks of the coypou as a species of water-rat, of the size and color of the otter. In the workshops it is called the South American monkey. It has long, ruddy hair, and a