82 THE BEAVER 
and deflected it into the canal, besides collecting the rain- 
fall and using that. This canal was from two to four feet 
wide, and 14 to 23 feet deep, the greater portion being of the 
first named width. ‘The first 450 feet was cut through level 
ground and received water from the pond. 
Another canal from the same pond divided into two 
branches at the end of 150 feet, these being 100 and 115 
feet long respectively, and extending along ground covered 
with deciduous trees, giving access to a large food supply, 
for which water transportation was thus furnished. This 
ditch was from three to five feet wide and eighteen inches 
deep. It had several burrows dug from it under knolls 
covered with trees, apparently for refuges. 
Morgan also describes another three level canal from the 
Carp River which was 579 feet long, 3 to 43 feet wide, 15 
to 24 feet deep. The first dam was 111 feet from the river, 
the second 289 feet. The ground all about was swampy 
and the ditch was filled by filtration from this. At the 
mouth of the canal the river was not deep enough for a 
beaver to swim below the surface out into the stream, so the 
beavers dug a channel twenty-five feet long and a foot deep 
in the river bed, giving the desired depth. 
In the region described by Morgan tamarack trees were 
nearest the water and on quite level ground. The deciduous 
trees desired as food were farther back, and therefore the 
beavers were obliged to make these canals in order to reach 
them. 
If I have been somewhat tedious in going into all these 
details and figures it is because I wished to show the remark- 
able nature and what we may call the magnitude of the work 
thus done by the beaver, for surely these long canals de- 
serve the term when we consider the tools with which they 
are made. ‘The two and three level canals are of course the 
most remarkable, It is easy enough and natural to dig a 
