THE LODGE 61 
the animals have lodges, they are ever without burrows in 
the banks of the pond whenever it is practicable to make 
them, these being used as places of refuge. 
The island lodge, being the best known, and, after all, 
being regarded as the type of these structures, will be de- 
scribed first. The typical lodge of this sort is a round, 
conical or beehive-shaped structure of mud and sticks in the 
pond at varying distances from the shore, sometimes but a 
step or two, and again many feet. It has a solid foundation 
of some sort, a small natural island, a shallow spot in the 
pond which gives an opportunity to begin building, or the 
beavers may make a foundation by carrying mud and brush 
to the desired spot, or more likely digging the former up from 
the bottom around the chosen spot and depositing it where 
needed. The house is built by piling mud and brush upon 
the foundation. 
Beavers are bound by no hard and fast rules in building 
their houses. Their sticks do not have to be laid just so, 
and trued and plumbed so that the building will not fall 
down. Nothing of the sort. They lay the sticks across 
one another in any way convenient, piling mud on them as 
they go along, only taking care that little or no mud is put 
in the middle, so that an air space is left between the sticks. 
This is their ventilator. 
The entrances are begun deep enough below the surface 
of the water to be safe from freezing. They are made by 
burrowing up from or near the bottom of the pond, gnawing 
off the ends of the sticks which interfere, and when above the 
water level making the living-room or chamber by a con- 
tinuation of the process, forming a space suited to the size of 
the family. Dugmore says there are two floors, one a few 
inches lower than that of the main room, and this is the one 
on which the occupants come up from the pond, and where 
they stop to permit the water to drain from their bodies, thus 
