NOTES ON BEAVERS. 163 



The " swell " houses have two flats, and may accommodate as 

 many as sixteen beavers. The lowest is on a level with the water ; the 

 upper one is used to sleep in, and has communication with the water 

 through the bottom ; the top one has also direct and covered communi- 

 cation with another chamber on the land. The entrances, two in 

 number, are subaqueous, and called angles, one being on the upper, 

 the other on the lower side of the house. 



The beavers usually have two houses, a summer house and a winter 

 house (just as we have a town house and a country house). The former 

 is generally situated near the mouth of the brook, as the food of the 

 beavers during the summer mouths consists in great measure of the 

 stems and roots of the pond lily (NupJiar advena), which is called 

 beaver-root by the settlers. 



Whilst the winter house is building the beavers often live in a deep 

 hole in the bank, which is called a " hovel " or " wash." The entrance 

 to this hole is always under water, and when it has extended some 

 distance inland it rises to a chamber which is not only high and dry, 

 but has a ventilating hole for the admission of air. 



Although birch and willow trees as large as a man's thigh are 

 frequently cut down, the beavers appear only to make use of the smaller 

 branches, which are cut into suitable lengths and carried to the house, 

 near which they are sunk by means of mud until a very considerable 

 pile of them is raised to some height above the water. The beavers 

 always draw their supply from the base of this stack, so as to feed on 

 the most sodden bark. Until winter compels them to consume this 

 store they feed upon the land or upon browse collected on the top 

 of the house. Their principal food, however, consists of the bark 

 of the aspen, willow, birch, poplar, and occasionally the alder. They 

 rarely resort to the pine tribe unless from severe necessity. 



I will now proceed with my description of the Bute Beavery, so that 

 you may compare an account of their actual doings in free or 

 unmolested confinement with the review of the habits of the species I 

 have just concluded. 



Having been favoured by Mr. Hughes, the great Birmingham 

 Naturalist, with a letter of introdiiction to Mr. Barker, of Rothesay, 

 and having also presented this letter and gained the latter gentleman's 

 cordial co-operation, we started from the Queen's Hotel on a very 

 beautiful morning, and after about an hour's drive stopped between 

 two of the Mount Stuart fir woods, whilst my friend summoned the 

 keeper. Black, from his cottage hard by, to show and explain the 

 " Beavery " to us. 



Crossing a stile and plunging at once into the depths of the wood, 

 a sharp walk of some ten minutes found us close by a dwarf wall 

 surmounted by a light iron fence. Climbing over this we entered an 

 enclosure of some three acres, containing a valley whose banks were 

 clothed with fir and an undergrowth of bracken, whilst along the 

 bottom trickled a tiny burn. Within this space the Marquis of Bute, 

 about four years since, turned out two pairs of beavers ; but as he did not 



