They build small conical houses with a mixture of hay and earth, those which build early raising their houses on the mud of the marshes, and those which build later in the season founding their habitations upon the surface of the ice itself.

The house covers a hole in the ice which permits them to go into the water in search of the roots on which they feed.

In severe winters when the small lakes are frozen to the bottom and these animals cannot procure their usual food they prey upon each other.

In this way great numbers are destroyed.
The beaver (ammisk) furnish the staple fur of the country.

Many surprising stories have been told of the sagacity with which this animal suits the form of its habitation, retreats, and dam, to local circumstances; and I compared the account of its manners given by Cuvier in his Regne Animal with the reports of the Indians and found them to agree exactly.