THE LODGE 7 
mud, at least in those regions where there is severe cold. 
Hearne makes a statement to this effect concerning the 
beavers in northwestern Canada. Mills gives the statistics 
of lodges of which he made notes in Colorado and Montana, 
and these show that the great majority were well plastered 
before the coming of winter. Dugmore also makes state- 
ments to the same effect. Without keeping any special 
notes on this point I also have noticed the occupied lodges 
usually are plastered in October. Morgan says that 7 some 
cases the outside of the lodge is plastered with mud late in 
the fall. 
I have never seen any data as to how long it takes to build 
a lodge. The only note I have bearing on the subject is of a 
pond which had no lodge in it on August third, and on Sep- 
tember third there was a small one with a heap of brush in 
the water beside it. 
A house is often built about a bunch or clump of bushes or 
small trees, such as willows or alders, which frequently 
have several stems growing from one root. ‘The roots 
evidently furnish the necessary foundation for the lodge, the 
building material being piled upon them and about the stems 
of the brush, which, when outside the confines of the cavity, 
often continue to grow and bear leaves. A somewhat un- 
usual example of this kind was a lodge in the Longs Peak 
region, Colorado, which had no less than sixteen living alder 
trunks coming up through the outer portion, ranging from 
2% to 5 inches through, being evidently outside the bound- 
aries of the chamber. 
Another lodge which I saw in the same region had a lodge- 
pole pine standing in the center, and the structure was 
obviously built about it. Being out in the pond it was inac- 
cessible to me and I could not make a close examination. 
Though dead, the pine still had brown needles on its 
branches. I was told that the house had been built four or 
five years previously (Fig. 34). 
