Canadian Beaver 



It is frequently reinforced by other dams just below, that 

 back up the water against the first and relieve it of a part of 

 the pressure. 



As the water rises the beavers watch the shores carefully 

 and every depression in the bank likely to lead the water off 

 to one side is promptly dammed and the pond at last brought 

 to the desired level. 



During the summer they live an easy and care free life 

 along the banks like muskrats, feeding on lily roots and bark 

 and green twigs generally; but with the coming on of autumn 

 their recreation ends and they go back to work once more, re- 

 pairing the dam against the coming of the fall rains and erect- 

 ing their winter cabin at the edge of the water. As before 

 stated the cabin is very similar to that of the muskrat, being 

 roughly built of sticks and brush, and finally plastered outside 

 with sods just before the pond freezes over. 



Knowing that long before the ice melts in the spring the 

 natural food supply in the pond is likely to be exhausted, these 

 prudent creatures lay in an ample supply of birch, poplar and 

 cotton wood for the winter. 



The trees, which at times are only to be found at consider- 

 able distances from the water, are felled and cut into con- 

 venient lengths and dragged down to the pond along paths 

 cleared through the undergrowth for the purpose. At times the 

 beavers even find it worth their while to dig channels in low 

 swampy ground, and along these they float their wood out into 

 the pond. It is stacked in a loose pile near the cabin, the ends of 

 the sticks buried in the mud so that they may not be floated 

 off when the water rises to fill the pond. After the pond is 

 full and its surface frozen over in the winter, the beavers cut 

 strips off the bark under the ice when other food falls short ; 

 But all winter long they are still hunting for fresh supplies, 

 following the pond's winding margin beneath the ice and ex- 

 ploring the various inlets and little brooks that reach back into 

 the woods, digging up roots from the bottom and gnawing the 

 bark from bushes and trees surrounded by water when the pond 

 is filled. And so the winter passes quietly with them, allowing 

 them only an occasional obscure glimpse of the sun when the 

 wind chances to sweep a portion of the clear ice above them 

 free from snow. 



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