A beaver in the New York Zoological Park [Photograph secured through the courtesy 

 of the New York Zoological Society] 



A large dam and two colonies weie seen in one of the small tributaries, 

 but dams are unnecessary because the river is sufficiently deep not to 

 freeze solid and the lodges or houses are built near deep holes. The 

 beaver's main sleeping-l)urrow is. underground but above water, while the 

 entrance to the l)urrow is below water, and on this river at least is invarial)ly 

 covered with willows interlocked in such inextricable manner as to resist 

 the force of ice jams during the spring thaw. 



On the Red Deer River, beavers apparently feed only on the bark and 

 twigs of young poplar trees. Birch trees growing in poplar groves had not 

 been touched. These skillful little "woodmen" gnaw down whole groves 

 of poplars, and I rarely saw any tree that had lodged in falling even where 

 they had cut trees on both sides of a deep ravine. After the tree falls they 

 cut it into sections from two to four feet long. Some trees were eight 

 inches in diameter and the sections weighed no less than a hundred pounds 

 each. Where a considerable number of trees had been cut some distance 

 from the ri\'er, there was always a regular runway, well beaten and cleared 

 of all stones and brush. Reputable witnesses told me that they had seen 

 beavers dri\e their front teeth into logs to drag them backward to the 

 water. Although I did not see this operation, I did see several logs with 

 scars of front teeth on them in such position that it seems most probable 

 that this is the beaver's method of taking logs down the runways. As 

 soon as the log reaches the water, it is pushed in front of the swimming 

 beaver till it reaches the house. After the bark has been gnawed off, the 

 log is cast adrift. I never saw logs on shore that had been gnawed. 



We rarely saw beavers during the day as they are nocturnal in habit, 

 but on moonlight nights we often watched them from some clump of willows. 

 No matter how skillfully we concealed ourselves however, their keen scent 

 detected us within a short time. There would ensue a great splashing near 

 shore, accompanied by many a resounding "whak," as the beavers in 

 diving struck the surface of the water with their broad tails. 



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