184 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



ing the wood. Dr. Newberry, in his Report re- 

 ferred to {supra, p. 165), remarks as follows upon the 

 tree cuttings in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon: 

 "From the point where their burrows terminate in 

 the water, trails lead off to the thickets of willow or 

 pine, where the beavers find their food. These thick- 

 ets exhibit the most surprising proofs of the power 

 and industry of these animals; whole groves of young 

 pine-trees cut down within a few inches of the ground, 

 and carried off bodily. * * * y^Q often saw trees 

 of considerable size cut down by the beaver; the 

 largest of which I noticed was a spruce pine, twelve 

 inches in diameter." In the Lake Superior region no 

 species of evergreen tree is ever cut by them; except 

 occasionally a young spruce, and in these cases the 

 Indians affirm that they are cut down for the gum 

 exuded from the tree. A Missouri trapper informed 

 me that he had seen pine-trees that had been cut 

 down by beavers, but he observed, that he never could 

 find a place where a limb or a twig had been cut off 

 from such a tree. There is a possibility that the 

 evergreen trees, referred to by Dr. Newberry, were cut 

 down by the beavers to obtain the nutritious mosses 

 which grow upon certain species of these trees in 

 great profusion; or for the sweet gums they afforded. 

 Upon the pines west of the mountains there is a moss, 

 growing as a parasite, which the Indians collect in 

 large quantities and bake in ground ovens for winter 

 food. It is cooked or baked in the same manner as 

 the Kamash, which is one of their staple articles of 

 consum|)tion. A "moss glue," as it is commonly 

 called, is thus obtained, which is both palatable and 

 nutritious. The inner bark of the gum-pine tree also. 



