Natural H'ldory and Hunting of the Beaver. . 59 



female is sroiug to have younsr the male takes the vouuo" of last year 

 (for sometimes as many a.s three generations will remain around the 

 paternal abode), and goes up a river several miles, remaining there 

 until the female has produced. 



The dams here, as everywhere else, are perfectly constructed, and 

 with an opening in the middle for the current. The only approach to 

 plastering their houses, which I have observed, is its giviug a self- 

 satisfied "clap'' of the tail on laying do^vn its load. The loads are 

 carried between the top of the fore paws and the under surface of the 

 head. The trailing of the tail along the ground gives the vicinity the 

 appearance of being plastered. The house has two flats ; the Ijottom 

 one is on a level with the water ; the top one is used to sleep in, and 

 has communication with the water through the bottom. The top one 

 has direct communication with the land. Sometimes they live in 

 merely a tunnel or cave. In winter the Indians go along the edge of 

 the ice, sounding with a stick ; and wherever there is the opening of 

 one of these tunnels, the sound being different, he watches and plugs 

 up the opening. If these holes or tunnels are used as escapes from 

 the houses, they break into the latter. If the beaver is not in, the 

 Indian makes a hole in the ice. He then makes a great noise, and 

 watches the rippling of the water to see if he is there, because his 

 motion will have that effect. When alarmed he generally rushes for 

 his hole ; and finding it closed, he is often shot in his endeavor to 

 escape. In trajyping, some strong-smelling stuff (commonly castoreum 

 in rum or cinnamon) is spread on the path. The trap is then set in 

 the water, close to the bank, and covered with about four inches of 

 water. The beaver, attracted by the strong-smelling substance, gives 

 an approving slap of his tail, and starts off, if anywhere in the neigh- 

 borhood, to investigate the booty ; and as he is leaving the water, 

 gives a "purchase," so as to spring up the bank on the very place 

 where the trap is concealed. His food is principally willows. The 

 bark is preferred, though the wood is eaten when nothing else can be 

 got. It will gnaw through thick trees, apparently for the top foliage ; 

 for immediately the tree falls the beavers spring on the branches of 

 it. A stump showing beaver-gnawing is not unlike Indian chopping 

 (small irregular chops) ; and novices in the back woods often mistake 

 them for Indian "sitrn." Laro;e trees are universally felled so as to 

 fail Avith the head to land, because, if required for floating down, the 

 branches would impede it being floated off, while the difficulty of 

 dragging it down is not so great, over and above the fact of the imped- 

 ing branches being easily gnawed off. Much ingenuity is displayed to 

 effect the fall of the tree in the proper position. I have often, in my 

 walks and sails along the solitaiy rivers of the western wilds, seen 



