to the great-est dan-ger. The hun-ters then disperse them-selves through the woods, to search for the set-tle-ments of these in-dus-trious an-i-mals, There are two ways of catch-ing them. Sometimes the hun-ters stop up the en-trance of the hut, which is on the side next the wa-ter, with stakes: then they make a hole through the wall of the hut, on the land side, large e-nough to ad-mit a dog. The dog is trained to hold the beav-er fast with his teeth, while he suf-fers his mas-ter to pull him back a-gain by his hind legs : thus the dog and the beav-er are drawn out togeth-er. The In-dians of Hud-son's Bay ad-opt an-oth-er plan. They first drain a-way the wa-ter which sur-rounds the beav-ers' huts, and then cov-er them with nets: when this is done, they be-gin to break in the tops of the hous-es. The frightened an-i-mals im-me-di-ate-ly en-deav-our to plunge in-to the wa-ter; but as soon as they run through the door to e-scape, they are en-tangled in the nets: the hun-ters seize them, and im-me-di-ate-ly strip off their soft, warm skins, which are thought more val-u-a-ble in the win-ter than at an-y oth-er time of the year. The hunters catch so man-y in one season, that you can form no i-de-a of the num-ber.

I dare say they are ver-y hap-py an-i-mals; for they are not on-ly ac-tive and in-dus-trious, but ver-y so-ci-a-ble and af-fec-tion-ate. Two young beav-ers were once taken a-live, and kept at one of the set-tle-ments in Hud-son's Bay: they lived

ver-y com-fort-a-bly, for some time, till one was killed by an ac-cid-ent. Its com-pan-ion grieved ver-y much for this sad loss. He had no pleas-ure in life when he had lost his friend; he would not take an-y more food, and pined and drooped, till at length he died. Stories of Animals.

spe-cies

THE WHITE ANT.

spe'-shēze lux-u-ri-ant lugz-u'-rē-ǎnt "THERE is an-oth-er lit-tle an-i-mal, which displays the build-ing in-stinct so re-mark-a-bly, that I must tell you some-thing a-bout it be-fore we part."

'Which is it, un-cle Thom-as ?"

"It is the white ant of Af-ri-ca; a lit-tle creature scarce-ly, if at all, ex-ceed-ing in size the ants of our own coun-try, yet they con-struct large nests of a con-i-cal or sug-ar-loaf shape, sometimes from ten to twelve feet high; and one spe-cies builds them so strong and com-pact, that even when they are raised to lit-tle more than half their height, the wild bulls of the coun-try use them as sen-tin-el posts to watch o-ver the safe-ty of the herd which gra-zes be-low.

"Mr Smeath-man, a nat-u-ral-ist, who ex-amined those ants' nests with great care, states that on one oc-ca-sion he and four men stood on the top of one of them. strong they are."

So you may guess how

"What are they made of, un-cle Thom-as? They must be ver-y cu-ri-ous struc-tures. How ver-y dif-fer-ent from the ant-hills of Eng-land!"

"Ver-y dif-fer-ent, in-deed, John. They are made of clay and sand, and as in such a lux-u-riant cli-mate they soon be-come coat-ed o-ver with grass, they quick-ly as-sume the ap-pear-ance of hay-cocks. They are in-deed ver-y re-mark-a-ble struc-tures, wheth-er we con-sid-er them ex-ternal-ly or in-ter-nal-ly, and are said to ex-cel in the skil-ful-ness of their con-struc-tion, and in the nice-ness of their ad-ap-ta-tion to the wants of the an-i-mal, those of the beav-er and the bee in the same pro-por-tions as the hab-it-a-tions of the most pol-ished Eu-ro-pe-an na-tions ex-cel the

huts of the rude in-hab-it-ants of the coun-try where the Ter-mi-tes or white ants a-bound; while, in re-gard to mere size, Mr Smeath-man cal-cu-lates that, sup-po-sing a man's or-din-a-ry height to be six feet, the nests of these crea-tures may be con-sid-ered to bear the same re-la-tion to their size as that of a man does to a build-ing raised to four times the height of the lar-gest E-gyp-tian pyr-a-mids!"

"That is e-nor-mous, un-cle Thom-as!"

"It is in-deed, Frank; but strange though it is in this point of view, the in-te-ri-or of the nest is even more re-mark-a-ble, man-y parts of its construc-tion fall-ing lit-tle short of hu-man in-genu-i-ty. I need not at-tempt to de-scribe all its ar-range-ments, which, with-out a plan, would be near-ly un-in-tel-li-gi-ble; but there is one de-vice so ad-mir-a-ble, that I must point it out to you. The nest is formed of two floors, as it were, and all round the walls are gal-ler-ies, per-fo-ra-ted in va-ri-ous wind-ing di-rec-tions, and lead-ing to the store-hous-es of the col-o-ny, or to the nur-ser-ies where the eggs are de-pos-it-ed. As it is sometimes con-ve-nient, how-ev-er, to reach the galler-ies which open from the up-per roof with-out thread-ing all the in-tri-ca-cies of these wind-ing pass-a-ges, they con-struct a bridge of a sin-gle arch be-tween the floor of the nest and its dome, if I may so call it, and thus at once reach the up-per roof, from which these pass-a-ges div-erge. They are thus saved much la-bour in trans-port

ing food and in bear-ing the eggs to the pla-ces where they are to re-main till they are hatched." "That is in-deed ad-mir-a-ble, un-cle Thom-as; they must be ver-y cu-ri-ous an-i-mals."

"They div-ide them-selves, Frank, in-to dif fer-ent class-es, in the same way as bees, choosing a queen, and some of them act-ing as work-ers, etc. But the white ants have a class to which there is noth-ing sim-il-ar a-mong an-y oth-er race of in-sects. These are what Smeath-man calls sol-diers, from the du-ties which they perform; they are much less nu-mer-ous than the work-ers, be-ing some-what in the pro-por-tion of one in a hun-dred. The du-ty of the sol-dier in-sects is to pro-tect the nest when it is at-tacked. They are fur-nished with long and slen-der jaws, and when en-raged bite ver-y fierce-ly, and sometimes drive off the ne-groes who may have attacked them, and even white peo-ple suf-fer se-vere-ly—a bite even through the stock-ing bleed-ing pro-fuse-ly. Some one who ob-served the col-o-ny a-larmed, by hav-ing part of the nest broken down, gives the fol-low-ing ac-count of the sub-se-quent op-er-a-tions :-One of the sol-diers first makes his ap-pear-ance, as if to see if the en-e-my be gone, and to learn whence the at-tack pro-ceeds. By-and-bye two or three oth-ers follow, and soon af-ter-wards a nu-mer-ous bod-y rush-es out, which in-creas-es in num-ber so long as the at-tack is con-tin-ued. They are at this time in a state of the most vi-o-lent a-git-a-tion;