A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE 329 



as nocturnal. Again and again, as I sat hidden 

 on the lake banks, beaver swam to and fro close 

 beside me, even at high noon. One, which was 

 swimming across a lake at sunset, would not 

 dive until we paddled the canoe straight for 

 it as hard as we could; whereupon it finally 

 disappeared with a slap of its tail. Once at 

 evening Lambert pulled his canoe across the 

 approach to a house, barring the way to the 

 owner — a very big beaver. It did not like to 

 dive under the canoe, and swam close up on 

 the surface, literally gritting its teeth, and now 

 and then it would slap the water with its tail, 

 whereupon the heads of other beaver would 

 pop up above the waters of the lake. 



By damming the outlets of some of the lakes 

 and killing the trees and young stufiF around the 

 edges, the beaver on this reserve had destroyed 

 some of the favorite haunts of the moose. We 

 saw the old and new houses on the shores of the 

 lakes and beside the streams; some of them 

 were very large, taller than a man, and twice 

 as much across. Some of the old dams, at the 

 pond outlets and across the streams, had be- 

 come firm causeways, grown-up with trees. 

 The beaver is a fecund animal, its habits are 

 such that few of the beasts of ravin can kill 

 it more than occasionally, and when not too 



