70 THE BEAVER 
with each other but by water. As there were beaver enough 
to inhabit each apartment it is more than probable that each 
family knew its own and always entered at its own door.” 
Hearne said that his Indians took thirty-seven beavers 
from this house, and many others escaped. His observa- 
tions were made in the latter third of the eighteenth century. 
A lodge is usually small at first, and grows by additions to 
the outside and enlarging the chamber as these additions 
are made. Just how separate rooms are made I do not 
know, though I have had a hint as to one possible method. 
In 1921 a small lodge and a larger one stood close together 
in a pond on Lost Creek. In 1923 the two apparently had 
been merged, and it would seem probable that here the two 
rooms were kept separate. 
Morgan states that the number of lodges 1 in a pond rarely 
exceeds four, though in some cases six and eight have been 
found. I have never seen more than three in a pond myself. 
Good-sized logs and poles are often, if not usually, placed 
on the top of a lodge, presumably for protection. It is a 
favorite place for leaving sticks after the bark has been 
eaten from them. Dugmore speaks of logs eighteen feet 
long and six inches through at the butt as often used, but I 
have never seen any of such asize. He also says that shorter 
pieces a foot or more long are not uncommon. I have at 
times seen poles ten or twelve feet long on houses. Perhaps 
this heavy stuff may be of service in weighting and holding 
down the exterior materials of the house. 
It is essential that there be water about the lodge suffi- 
ciently deep to protect the entrance from freezing. Often 
this is provided by the animals in excavating the material to 
build their home, and perhaps sometimes for a dam. This 
deep water is also often used for storing the winter supply 
of food. 
In autumn the lodges are usually plastered well with fresh 
