120 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



markable structure and ascertain its dimensions by 

 actual measurement; but, judging from the character 

 and extent of the other erections of the beavers 

 within this area, I see no reason for disbelieving the 

 statement. It was named and described by them as 

 the highest beaver structure within their knowledge. 



Some of the dams in this region are not less re- 

 markable for their prodigious length, a statement of 

 which, in feet, would scarcely be credited unless veri- 

 fied by actual measurement. The longest one yet 

 mentioned measured two hundred and sixty feet, but 

 there are dams four hundred, and even five hundred 

 feet long. 



There is a dam, in two sections, situated upon a 

 tributary of the main branch of the Esconauba River, 

 about a mile and a half northwest of the Washington 

 Mine. One section measures one hundred and ten, 

 and the other four hundred and twenty feet, with an 

 interval of natural bank, worked here and there, of 

 one thousand feet. A solid-bank dam, twenty feet in 

 length, was first constructed across the channel of the 

 stream, from bank to bank, with the usual opening, 

 for the surplus water, five feet wide. As the water 

 rose and overflowed the bank on the left side, the dam 

 was extended for ninety feet until it reached ground 

 high enough to confine the pond. This natural bank 

 extended up the stream, and nearly parallel with it, 

 for one thousand feet, where the ground again subsided, 

 and allowed the water in the upper part of the pond 

 to flow out and around into the channel of the stream 

 below the dam. To meet this emergency, a second 

 dam, four liundred and twenty feet long, was con- 

 structed. For the greater part of its length it is low, 



