Beaver 467 



Like most of the rodents which do not hibernate, the stor. 

 Beavers store up food for winter. All through the autumn 

 they labour; the suitable trees next the bank are first attacked; 

 if they fall into the water they are allowed to lie there, as it is 

 easy to cut their branches later under the ice. If they fall 

 on the land all the branches are cut off into pieces of a size 

 possible to handle, that is to say, *'when 5 inches in diameter 

 they are usually about a foot long, when 4 inches in diameter 

 they are about a foot and a half long, and when 3 inches in 

 diameter are about 2 feet long. Poles from i to 2 inches in 

 diameter are often found 8, 10, or 12 feet in length, and also cut 

 up into short lengths from a few feet to a few inches long." " 

 They are brought to the lodge to be stored in two different 

 ways. The heavier timbers are sunken in the bottom of the 

 pond. How they are sunken is often discussed. I have heard 

 men who should have known better say that the Beaver sucks 

 all the air out of them to make them sink, or that the Beavers 

 charm them and at your touch the charm is broken, they float 

 up. The fact is that most green woods are nearly as heavy 

 as water. If waterlogged they are heavier. The Beaver 

 carries the green stick down to the bottom and partly buries 

 it in the mud; very little holds it. In a week or so it is water- 

 logged and lies there even if uncovered. If any one pulls at a 

 piece of poplar, for example, just after it is sunken, it floats 

 and will not stay down without weighting. These things I 

 saw and proved to my own satisfaction on the Nyarling River, 

 near Great Slave Lake, in June, 1907. 



The smaller branches are stored in a difl^erent way. In 

 the water above Beaver lodges that are situated in a current 

 is a pile of brushwood moored to the bottom and appar- 

 ently not used for food. This Morgan considers is a safe 

 storage place for the smaller twigs that might be carried away 

 by the stream.'^ 



When utilizing these hoards the Beaver takes the piece 

 into the lodge, eats the bark off and later adds the useless 

 stick to the roof-tree or to the dam. 



" Am. Beaver, pp. 178-9. '* Ibid., p. 188. 



