CHAPTER VII 



INLAND WATER CULTURE 



WATER (CULT! 



ARDLY any native 

 species found by the 

 white man in America 

 had done so much to 

 alter and improve its 

 environment as had the 

 American beaver. Cer- 

 tainly the red man had 

 done less. Thousands 

 of acres of fertile valley 

 land now tilled by Amer- 

 ican plowmen was 

 levelled up behind 

 beaver dams. These followed one another in close 

 succession in the valley of many a woodland stream. 

 The wash from the hills settled in their basins. As 

 they were filled, dams were built higher, and thus the 

 rich soil grew deeper. 



The beaver was a builder of ponds. His only method 

 was by damming gentle streams. He cut down trees 

 with his great chisel-like teeth, trees often six, eight, or 

 ten inches in diameter. He cut off their boughs and 



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