84 THE BEAVER 
distance upstream from their pond, and found difficulty in 
floating the logs down the bouldery creek bed at the then 
low water stage. Therefore they went off a little distance 
to one side of the stream, and taking water from a pond 
there above the bad water, led it down so that it rejoined the 
creek at a pond below the rough places, much simplifying the 
transportation problem. It is not clear to me just how 
much ditch was actually constructed, but I think probably 
only enough to start the water on the right course, for the 
slope down which it flowed was steep enough for the water to 
cut its own channel easily. Todo this certainly showed good 
sense on the part of the animals, for in attempting to use 
the stream one or two of their number had been killed by a 
mountain lion, and they had been able to get only a few logs 
down after much labor. 
S. Stillman Berry has given an account of a beaver canal 
in Montana which seems to be the longest on record. A 
portion of it was carried through a slough, or perhaps it 
would be better to say that the builders utilized the slough 
as part of the canal, though they seem to have done some 
bank building in it to confine the water. A portion of the 
canal was cut through a swampy place and the mud thrown 
up on either side to make the banks. The length of the 
waterway was 745 feet, and the total length of the whole 
stretch used for conveying logs, including a waterless sec- 
tion at the further end, 1145 feet. 
Dugmore states that the canals are completed before 
wood-cutting operations are begun. But this would be true 
in only a limited sense, for the very long canals I have men- 
tioned were doubtless constructed by degrees, extended as 
became necessary to reach additional supplies of food. 
Seton says the longest canal he ever examined was an 
old one in the Adirondacks, which was 654 feet long, and 
nearly four feet wide. It was well marked after fifty years 
of abandonment. 
