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Reflections on the Works of God and of His Providnce Throughout All Nature
Reflections on the Works of God and of His Providnce Throughout All Nature Author:Christoph Christian Sturm General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1808 Original Publisher: Printed for J. Walker, J. Johnson ... [and 34 others] Subjects: Natural theology Religion / Christian Life / Devotional Religion / Devotional Religion / Meditations Religion / Theology Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the origi... more »nal. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: AUGUST XII. The Buildings of the Beaters. IF a man, who had never heard of the beavers' mauner of bnilding, had been shewn some of tlieir edifices, he would certainly have supposed them the work of skilful architects. The whole performance of these amphihions creatures is won-. derful. The regularity of the plan, the size, the solidity, and the admirable contrivance of their bnildings, mnst fill every attentive observer with astonishment. The beavers choose a place to bnild on where they can have plenty of provisions, and near a rivulet, in order to have a reservoir of water to hathe in. They begin by making a dike or hank which keeps the water on a level with the first floor of their honse. The hank is sometimes a prodigions work. It is about ten or twelve feet thick at bottom. It goes sloping, and insensibly diminishing towards the top, till it becomes no more than two feet. The only materials for this dike are wood and clay. The beavers cut pieces of wood as thick as an arm, with wonderful ease. They fix these upright down into the ground, very close to each other, and interweave between smaller and more supple pieces of wood. But as the water would get through, and their watering-place would be empty, they have recourse to clay or potter's earth, which they know where to find, and with which they fill all the spaces within and without, so that the water caunot run through. In pro- portio...« less