THE BEAVER. 53 
animals, I can assure you, had a pretty hard time of it. 
However, after a few days’ rest, having viewed the 
situation, they set vigorously to work to make them- 
selves comfortable, and began to construct a dam by 
forming a dyke or embankment across a small moor- 
land stream running through the enclosure ; at the 
same time they commenced to build a house to live in. 
“The materials of which the dyke is constructed 
are wood, grass, mud, anda few stones which are 
used for the purpose of keeping the grass and 
smaller pieces of wood in their place until more is 
built on the top of them. They have continued rais- 
ing this embankment to a certain extent every year, 
until it has now attained the following dimensions, 
viz. :—length, seventy feet; height in the deepest 
part, fully eight feet ; breadth of base at deepest 
part, from fifteen to twenty feet, sloped inside, not 
straight across, but finely arched against the stream, 
so that it may the more easily resist the great pres- 
sure of water which it has to bear ;—perfectly level, 
so that when a spate of water comes down it may 
run evenly over the top from side to side. So sub- 
stantially have they built it, that no material damage 
has occurred to it from all the floods that have passed 
over it. They use a number of the larger pieces of wood 
as props, by fixing the thick end into the ground 
and the small end on the top, then build on the top 
of these, so as to fix them firmly. It would require 
to be seen to appreciate the great skill displayed in 
its construction ; as I think it would tax the energies 
of a Bateman ora Gale to make a better with the 
Ez 
