162 NOTES ON BEAVERS. 



haystack, a little flattened down ; rather more than two-thirds, about 8 

 feet, showed above the water ; internally it contained one large circular 

 apartment about (> feet G inches in diameter ; the roof, which was 

 dome-shaped, bein^ 2 feet 3 inches high in the centre, gradually sloping 

 downwards to the edge ; the floor was 10 inches above water mark, and 

 contained four beds, made of chips of wood cut very fine ; the walls 

 were from 4 to 5 feet thick, made altogether of earth and wood. There 

 were three entrances, all under water. 



Close to the camp was the storehouse, an accumulation of fresh 

 logs and branches submerged in the water for winter use. There must 

 have been half-a-dozen ordinary cart loads. They had been hauled 

 60 yards by land and twice as far by water. Trees of all sizes, from a 

 foot in diameter downwards, that had been felled by the beavers, lay 

 scattered all around the pond and in the water, some freshly cut, 

 others decayed and covered with moss. The boughs of the larger ones 

 had been lopped off and carried to the storehouse, the bark of the 

 stems being eaten on the spot. Smaller trees had been felled, cut into 

 logs, and carried bodily off. Saplings the size of an axe handle had 

 been cut as with one slanting blow of an axe, but the larger trees were 

 gnawed all round, and dry sticks and roots that obstructed their 

 roads had been cut neatly off at the proper breadth and the pieces 

 thrown aside. 



In constructing a dam the beavers select a spot where two trees 

 grow opposite to one another on each bank. These they fell in such 

 a way that they meet in the bed of the stream, and are inclined 

 upwards. This done, more trees above are cut down, and the pieces 

 dragged along the roads I have described to the water and floated, 

 under the guidance of two or more beavers, who take advantage of all 

 side eddies as will siiit the purpose, to the dam, against which they 

 ai-e placed horizontally. The interstices are next most carefully filled 

 with grass, fibres, and tempered clay. Nature now lends her assistance 

 by accumulating against the upper side the debris which would other- 

 wise have travelled far beyond. Some of the boughs strike root, and 

 the dam becomes so strong as to be used as a bridge by man and 

 beast. Occasionally flood holes are made in it to permit the passage of 

 water after rain, and all damage to it from whatever cause is instantly 

 repaired. 



The dam being complete, and the water above it having been raised 

 by its aid to a depth and width in proportion to the size of the colony, 

 the next business is to build the houses, the sites of which are generally, 

 but not always, chosen near the side. These are formed of water-logged 

 sticks placed horizontally in the water ; they have always two or more 

 entrances, and a small chamber ; the top of the house is very thick, to 

 guard against attacks by animals (chief amongst these being the pan- 

 ther, wolf, and wolverine), and as this roof is added to every season it 

 is sometimes eight feet through, and during frost frozen as hard as 

 iron. Mud and roots are used to make the house solid, but no mud is 

 seen from the outside, as the top is covered with loose sticks left there 

 by the beavers after eating oft" the bark. 



