5° EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
the stream. There is one instance of this latter fact 
which is very difficult to explain. A tree of about a 
foot in diameter grew close to the base of one of the 
dams, leaning at a considerable angle over the dam, 
and this, for some reason best known to themselves, 
they had left standing long after they had cut down 
trees at a considerable distance from the stream; 
but last spring they started to cut it down, and 
down it came—not, as it would be supposed, in the 
direction in which it leaned (which would have 
brought it right across the dam), but backwards 
from the water, and nearly exactly in a contrary 
direction from that in which it grew. How this was 
done I do not pretend to say, nor why, for it was not 
of the description of tree on which they feed (mostly 
Scotch fir); but there it lay, having been down 
some months, with all its bark on and the branches 
not lopped off, clear of the dam and stream. 
“The mode of felling trees is very interesting ; 
their teeth cut as clean and sharp as a chisel, and 
the modus operandi (as seen by the keeper in his 
moonlight watches) is, a cut above and a cut below, 
a wrench, and out comes the chip. They appear 
never to work more than one at a time at each tree— 
2.¢., so far as the cutting down is concerned—and to 
relieve one another at regular intervals, all work 
being done at night or in the very early morning. 
Two or more will join together to drag or roll a log to 
the water which is too heavy for one to manage, and 
the bark is always stripped off and stored under 
water for winter consumption, before the branches 
