CHAPTER VI 
CANALS, TRAILS, AND LANDING PLACES 
CANALS 
The canal is the third of the structures of the beavers which 
have made them noted among four-footed animals. It is 
the least known, though the one which might, in many 
respects, be considered as showing the most intelligence on 
the part of the builders. Not that they do not make mis- 
takes at times, and dig canals which fail to carry the water 
where desired. Sometimes an engineer of the genus Homo 
surveys a ditch in which the water will not run! Whether 
guided by intelligence or by a highly specialized instinct the 
beaver does construct some remarkable works in the form 
of canals. Morgan very well says that the canal of itself 
is simpler than the dam to construct, but requires more 
intelligence to plan. 
The ordinary canal is built for the purpose of transporting 
logs from the place where they were cut to the pond, and 
also to afford a water way in which the builders may pass 
back and forth in more security than when traveling on 
land. Morgan gives an instance where beavers cut a canal 
across a narrow neck of land to save going around a bend in 
the stream, this being purely for the purpose of traveling 
and not for transport. 
Canals vary much in length, from those but a few feet 
long, hardly worthy of the name, to those several hundred 
feet long, and built with two or more levels in them, the 
first or lowest being the only one to receive water from the 
pond or stream, the upper ones getting their supply from a 
80 
