128 THE BEAVER 
which is supposed to have some medicinal quality. I can 
not help wondering how the trappers happened to discover 
this interesting fact. 
J. S. Newberry, speaking of the beaver in the Cascade 
Mountains, one hundred and fifty miles south of the Colum- 
bia River, said they cut off whole groves of young pine trees 
and carried them away bodily. 
It is almost invariably stated that the bark is the food 
which is obtained from the trees cut by the beaver, and 
doubtless this is true to a great extent, if not entirely so. 
Morgan, however, was of the opinion that wood itself formed 
a considerable portion of the beaver’s food. He mentions 
instances where trees had been cut into apparently for 
the express purpose of eating the wood, as no chips remained 
about the trees, which were not entirely cut down. He 
also refers to the sticks and logs so often seen about beaver 
work which have apparently unnecessary notches cut into 
them, and thinks this was done to get the wood. I have 
often wondered myself why this was done, and the thought 
had entered my mind that the wood had been eaten, and 
yet it seemed so unlikely when there was plenty of bark 
that I hardly gave the idea serious consideration. Sticks 
three to five inches in diameter are often found having cuts 
in several places close together, going all around the stick 
but not quite severing it. If the wood was not eaten the 
only other likely use of it would be for bedding. Other- 
wise the beavers were just whittling (Fig. 72). 
Morgan gives somewhat more convincing evidence with 
regard to this in the stomach contents of three beavers taken 
in February and March and sent out for dissection. Doctor 
Ely, who made the dissections, “found their stomachs 
filled with lignine, with a slight intermixture of the tendrils 
of forest trees, and no perceptible remains of bark. ‘The 
comminuted particles were so clearly of wood as to leave no 
doubt upon the question.” 
