THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE BEAVER ra 
things in which it is guided by something more than in- 
stinct alone. Such things as the selection of the best loca- 
tions for dams, of which I later give one or two instances, 
the building of canals with two or more water levels, 
making a ditch around a rough place in a stream so as to 
take its logs down with the least trouble, all seem to me to 
point to the possession of some degree of intelligence. An 
instinct which tells an animal to do any or all of these 
things comes so near being intelligence that it may as well 
be called that. 
On the other hand, in the felling of trees, the animals 
seem often to proceed in an unintelligent manner, and to 
have no notion as to making a tree fall in the most suitable 
direction, and especially so as to prevent its entanglement 
with other trees. Where trees have become entangled 
with others in falling, the beavers seldom seem to take 
very obvious methods of freeing them. Mills says that 
he knew beavers to stop cutting on the windward side of a 
grove on a windy day, and to go around to the lee side; also 
not to cut trees whose tops were entangled in the branches 
of other trees. 
Mills firmly believed that the beaver was an intelligent, 
reasoning animal, and gave various reasons for his belief. 
Morgan was very much of the opinion that the beaver is 
possessed of a free intelligence, as he termed it, mentioning 
especially in this connection the interrelation of dams, 
lodges, and water level. He also thought that while a 
canal was simpler to construct than a dam, it required 
more intelligence to plan, which is quite true. 
In connection with canals Dugmore says: ‘‘These canals, 
I venture to say, are a demonstration of the highest skill 
to be found in the work of any animal below man. It is 
even doubtful whether man in his lowest form does such 
extraordinary constructive work and with such remarkable 
