106 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



influence of topographical features upon the character 

 of their dams. 



The first solid-bank dam to be described (Plate IX.) 

 is in the Ely Branch of the Esconauba River, and is 

 marked as No, 14 on the map. When photographed it 

 was not in a perfect condition. It had been cut through 

 in two places by the miners, some three years before, 

 to draw off the water from the beaver meadows pre- 

 paratory to cutting the grass from these meadows for 

 hay, and had thus been exposed to waste. The 

 water in the pond then stood but a few inches above 

 its natural level, leaving the dam mostly uncovered 

 on both slopes, and its lower face littered with loose 

 materials from these breaches. It exhibited the re- 

 mains only of what originally was one of the most 

 perfect structures of its kind. Upon the right bank 

 of the stream (left side of the engraving) was the 

 lodge, with its heap of brush, for the lodgment of cut- 

 tings, sunk in the pond immediately in front, and rising 

 above the surface; and on the opposite side was a 

 beaver meadow of considerable extent, back of which 

 was the forest. 



The dam is constructed at a bend in the stream, 

 where the channel is about seventy feet wide and of 

 uniform depth, and where the bottom is smooth and 

 hard. It is substantially a solid embankment, and is 

 thrown across the stream diagonally, but in a straight 

 line, from bank to bank. Between these banks it is 

 seventy-five feet long. On the right side it is built 

 into the bank, and, rising above it, is extended, as a 

 low dam, for thirty feet beyond, and on the left for 

 fifteen feet, thus giving to the structure a total length 

 of one hundred and twenty feet. Between the banks, 



