228 EE-INTEODTTCTIOK OF THE BEATEE INTO BKITAIK. 



"water, "With liis hind-feet webbed up to the claws and his broad 

 tail as a rudder, he has immense swimming-power, leaving his fore- 

 feet free for carrying. He arranges so that the level of the water 

 ■where his home is shall be always about the same, by widening the 

 stream into a large pool with a broad weir over which the sui-plus 

 water quickly escapes. 



Bewick says that fish is not the favourite food of the beaver ; 

 and Black says that they never touch the trout, of which there are 

 plenty in their stream. Buckland says : " The beaver is not a fish- 

 eater, never was, and never will be ; he is a typical rodent or 

 gnawing animal, his incisor teeth are formed like chisels to cut 

 down boughs, his smaller teeth to eat vegetable substances only. 

 It is about as sensible a thing to say that the beaver eats fish as to 

 say that a rabbit or a guinea-pig does." Yet another writer says 

 that he had tame beavers which were very fond of rice and plum- 

 pudding, and also ate partridges and venison, and I suppose that it 

 is not an unknown thing for graminivorous animals to become 

 carnivorous. 



The account of the beaver's domestic arrangements would not be 

 complete without a word about the nursery. How often in the 

 year and for how many occupants at a time the nursery is required 

 I find again to be matters of dispute. Bewick says once a year, 

 and for two or three little beavers at a time. Black says only one 

 at a time, but he is certain twice a year. But Wood says three or 

 four at a time, and does not say how often — he adds that the little 

 creatures are born with their eyes open, which I readily believe. 

 Then Morgan says two to five and sometimes six at a time. 



In conclusion I will mention an instance of the good effect of 

 beavers' work which I read in an article in ' Harper's Magazine,' 

 on "Wahlamet Valley in Oregon." "All cereals," it says, "are 

 raised here, but you will see little of anything except wheat, which 

 for half a century has made Oregon famous. In 1831, it is related, 

 the first wheat was sowed at French Prairie, in Marion County, 

 and that same field yielded 35 bushels to the acre in 1879. Eich 

 land that, but equalled in many parts of the western valleys, where 

 the soil is a dark loam, underlaid by clay. The richest acres, of 

 course, lie along the wooded river-bottoms, in many of which may 

 be traced extensive beaver-dams. The beavers have long ago de- 

 parted ; but their occupation, by making broad reaches of still 

 water overflowing the lowlands, and permitting wide deposits of 

 alluvium, has produced a soil of extraordinary fertility." 



