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Show BEAVER'S DEN----RUDE MANNERS OF THE AMERICAN HUNTERS. 215 200 steps from our night's quarters, and we went to look at it. At that time the Beaver had lain about 300 paces further up the river, but in a dark night was loosened from its moorings by a storm, driven down the river, and thrown upon a sand bank. Two men were drowned, and Mr. Mitchell had escaped by an immense leap from the deck to the shore. The greater part of the cargo, worth 30,000 dollars, was lost: the crew then built a small fort, or log-house, about forty paces in length, in which they remained till part of the goods were saved, and another boat came up to fetch them. In this melancholy situation they were in danger of a quarrel with a band of Blackfoot Indians. These Indians were returning by land from Fort Union, to which they had been invited, on account of the conclusion of the treaty of peace. The presents made to them by the traders were on board the Beaver, and the greater part was lost, which much incensed the Indians. The disputants had already taken up and cocked their pieces, and it was entirely owing to the resolute conduct of Mr. Mitchell that the matter was amicably settled. Since that time the bank of the river, at this place, has undergone a considerable change. Only the pickets, at the back of the log-house, were still standing; all the rest had been swept away. At that time the whole place was bare sand; now, it was covered with willows, five feet high, and the river had carried away the bank for the breadth of, at least, 100 paces. Soon after eight o'clock, the thermometer being at 80°, our vessel reached the place where one of the buffalo cows was lying, near which the hunters had passed the night, and we took the best part on board. The hunters of the prairies are often greater savages than the Indians themselves; they frequently eat the liver and other parts of the animals they have killed, without dressing it. We had gone but a little way along the southern bank, when we perceived, below the steep wall, a beaver's den, of which Mr. Bodmer made a drawing. (See Vignette XVII.) It consisted of a heap of twigs and logs, between four and five feet high, and the entrance was, as usual, below water. The inside of such a den consists of earth and clay, with pieces of wood, and contains several chambers, or divisions, in which these remarkable animals lie dry above the water. A bridge of earth, which likewise contained some wood, led from the land to the cone-shaped den, the interior of which I was, to my great regret, prevented from examining. In these rapid rivers, the beavers build only such light dwellings; but erect larger ones, skilfully provided with strong dams, only in stagnant waters, such as lakes, ponds, still arms of rivers, &c. &c. There are, however, some beavers here which live only in holes in the ground, the entrance to which is above water. Their chambers are then perhaps eight feet above the surface of the water, are spacious, and adapted to the number of animals that live in them. We had sent people into the forest to cut hatchet-handles of ash wood, because further up there was no wood of this kind of a sufficient size. At noon the thermometer was at 81°; the hunters had killed an elk, and seen several bears. A thunder-storm, with a high wind, obliged us |