372 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



climate was not so cold, but the Wise Men say that we 

 American Beavers have been building dams and winter 

 lodges for thousands of years, and they can prove their 

 words by digging and showing you our ancient earth- 

 works. How we came to need our island lodges is a 

 legend in our family, but one that Heart of Nature will 

 not yet let us tell, lest no one should believe it. 



" ' Each Beaver family has its own lodge, for though 

 we are sociable we do not approve of hotel life, and at 

 most, several families may have lodges in the same 

 pond. We Beavers know the places where warm 

 springs, deep from the earth, feed the ponds, and near 

 these spots we make our buildings. Starting from some 

 sunken island, we begin our heap of sticks, building a 

 thick mud and wicker wall and arching poles to support 

 the roof of a living room, which is some half dozen feet 

 across and well above the water line. This lodge has 

 two entrances below water, — one for the family and 

 one for food wood. 



'''Before ice and snow stop our tree-cutting excur- 

 sions, every Beaver household moves into its lodge and 

 has a sunken woodpile close at hand, from which the 

 daily provisions can be taken by swimming under the 

 ice. We Beavers can swim a half mile under water 

 without rising through the breathing holes. You ma}^ 

 wonder why, in the cold countries where we live, the 

 ponds and rivers do not freeze to the bottom, or sudden 

 thaws drown us out. In the first place, we make our 

 dams the riglit height to give us the exact depth of 

 water we need, and nature guides us where to build near 

 the warm spring holes that keep the ice thin, and the 

 heavy snows also helping us by shutting out the cold. 



