78 THE BEAVER 
interesting story of some Indian children entering what 
apparently was a bank lodge. ‘Three little girls, ten or 
twelve years old, were sent to the river by their mothers to 
get water. When they reached the stream they decided 
to take a swim before returning. Removing their clothes 
they went out on a fallen tree projecting over the water. 
One of them noticed a hole in the bank under water and 
suggested they see where it went, so they dived and swam 
under water up the hole. They felt something large and 
soft pass by them, going out. A beaver, of course. They 
went a few feet and saw a little light, and discovered they 
were inside a beaver house. A little frightened by the 
beaver which had passed them as they were going in, they 
did not dare go back, and therefore broke a hole in the 
roof where the light came in, and emerged from this. They 
found themselves in a thicket of wild rose bushes and were 
much scratched before they made their way through them. 
BURROWS 
The beaver was perhaps naturally a burrowing animal 
from the very beginning; at any rate, it still is, and as 
before remarked, many beavers never build houses but live 
in burrows in the banks of streams and lakes. In many cases 
a stream may be too rough or swift for a dam to be built, 
or so wide and deep as to be beyond the beaver’s engineering 
skill, and yet have a plentiful food supply upon its banks, and 
here the animals make their homes in holes. In such cases 
they are called ‘bank beaver” and are often said to be a dif- 
ferent sort from those living in lodges. Suchis not the case, 
however. They are merely adapting themselves to circum- 
stances, and, as a matter of fact, the lodge builders usually, 
if not always, have burrows in the banks of their ponds in 
which they can take refuge if disturbed in their houses, or if 
pursued by an enemy and unable to reach the lodge. Ona 
