THE BEAVER. 49 
measures some eight or ten feet thick at the base, 
and about two feet at the top. 
“The house which they have built for themselves is 
constructed of similar materials, and presents a 
dome-shaped top of about ten feet in diameter, 
rising some two or three feet above the water. 
There are two entrances or doors to the house, both 
being at the bottom of the water, and an air-hole or 
ventilator is left at the top, protected with sticks or 
logs. 
“Jn addition to the house, they have constructed 
several burrows, which, entering the ground under 
water, run into the bank for three or four yards, and 
are provided with a ventilator similar to that in the 
house. 
“The largest pond, that in which the house is 
placed, is about thirty yards long by ten or twelve 
yards wide at the widest, the dam inclosing a little 
bay or inlet at one end, thus accounting for its extra 
length. 
“Tt is very wonderful to observe the manner in 
which these little workmen fell trees (some of them 
upwards of two feet in diameter), and almost in- 
variably bring them down so as to fall directly 
towards the water, thus giving them a shorter 
distance to drag the bark and branches when lopped 
off; and it is only when a tree, being nearly cut 
through at the base, succumbs in a storm coming 
from a wrong direction, or when, as it occasionally 
happens, they themselves wish it otherwise, that 
they fail to bring the trees down directly towards 
