158 



THE AxMERICAN BEAVER. 



below the Yellowstone. Above the mouth of the last 

 named river their tree cuttings are seen in great num- 

 bers on the banks at intervals all the way to the 



Fig. 15. 



False Lodge, Upper Missouri. 



mountains, with the exception of the district known 

 as the Bad Lands. They live in burrows in the banks, 

 but protect the entrances to them by a false lodge, as 

 shown in the figure. After the river has subsided to 

 its lowest level, which is shortly after the first of 

 September, they construct a lodge upon the bed of 

 the river and against its vertical bank. It is built of 

 sticks and poles of willow and cotton-wood, in the 

 precise manner of the lodges described, without being 

 intended for a residence, but instead of that, as a pro- 

 tection to the entrance to their burrow, which rises 

 from under this lodge back into the bank and well up 

 toward the surface, where the chamber or burrow is 

 excavated. The materials used in the construction 

 of this lodge furnish undoubtedly a portion of their 

 supply of winter wood, as well as a lodgment for 

 their short cuttings for the same purpose. With 

 the spring rise in the river most of these lodges 

 are swept away; but as the entrances to their bur- 



