THE LODGE is 
wood. Dugmore says the latter is more frequently used, 
and that may be the case where wood is easily obtainable, 
but many beavers live where there are only small willows or 
other bushes and are practically forced to use grass. 
The following remarkable description of beaver lodges is 
taken from Fauna Americana, by Richard Harlan, published 
in Philadelphia in 1825: 
“The huts are established on these dams, and formed of 
nearly the same material as the dikes; the huts are two stories 
high, each story eighteen inches in height; logs composing 
these cells have been observed two feet in length, sixteen 
inches in circumference, and weighing fourteen pounds; it 
is evident from the marks on the ends of these logs, that they 
have all been cut through with the teeth, and notched at 
the end, so as to interlock with each other in the same 
manner as logs fashioned by human industry for the purpose 
of constructing the common log houses. The base of the 
lower chamber is under water, as is also the hole by which 
they enter.” 
An old book in which is what purports to be an account 
of the beaver has a picture of a lodge with doors and windows 
in it, quite like a real house. 
BANK LODGES 
As I have already remarked, bank lodges vary in the man- 
ner of their construction. Some are built wholly outside the 
bank, but against it; others partly outside and partly in the 
bank; and still others wholly in the bank, perhaps several 
feet away from the water. One can not help wondering 
which type was the first to be developed from the burrow, 
undoubtedly the primitive habitation of the beaver. Per- 
haps it was the last named, for it would be a simple matter, 
if the ground above a burrow happened to cave in, for the 
owners to pile sticks and earth over the opening, enlarge 
the chamber if necessary, and they would have a lodge. 
