NOTES ON BEAVEBS. 165 



leg. Black, who frequently spends a night at the top of a tree to watch 

 his charges at work (under the disadvantage of their doing most when the 

 nights are darkest), saw this log deposited. He said the beaver floated 

 it down stream to the dam. on which it climbed and drew the log after 

 it ; then, placing the thin end against the back edge of the dam, it took 

 the butt in its paws, and raiding itself to its full height pushed it with 

 such force and precision that it was at once so firmly fixed that 

 although we grasped it fairly no movement was perceptible, In another 

 spot a horizontal bough had been carefullj- wedged behind an upright fork. 



The sloping face of the dam was composed of clay and stones, the 

 original material of the present ponds. This clay thej' puddle with 

 their feet, make into balls, and pile in a heap in the middle of the 

 pool until required. In carrying it through the water they hold it 

 between the fore paws and the chin, swimming with the tail and webbed 

 hind feet. If alarmed, or when in the act of diving, they strike the 

 water with their tails, and thus occasion a loud report. 



Their house, which is near the right bank, looking down stream, 

 is 9ft. high {'} of which are above water), 10ft. long, and Sft. wide, 

 oval in shape, and difficult, in spite of its size, to recognise at first, 

 owing to their having nearly covered it with growing turf, boughs and 

 stems of fern, the leaves of which they had eaten. Along the top was 

 a backbone of boughs left open as a ventilator, and through which heat 

 was perceptiblj' rising from the chamber within. Close to the water on 

 the upper side was a narrow terrace, on which Black said the tenants 

 liked to sun themselves when all was quiet. 



My friend climbed on the top of the house, to the consternation of 

 the inmates, who bolted in al) directions, their hidden tracks being 

 marked by lines of rising bubbles. In stepping back to land he put his 

 foot on a tree stump, and instantly fell all his length. We found he 

 had gone through to the land chamber of the house. Black was horrified. 

 I was delighted, and at once commenced an inspection. 



This chamber was as big as a W'heel-barrow, and contained two 

 beds of wood shavings like spills (a few of which I brought away), 

 which are prepared by the beavers from the small boughs on the bark 

 of which they have fed. The house side of this chamber had been 

 built of boughs and sods, the projecting ends of the branches being 

 neatly dressed off, and the stump of the tree had been hollowed until 

 only a thin shell remained, which accounted for its having given 

 way so unexpectedlj'. 



In the centre of the pool they collect their winter store of boughs, 

 which, when complete, stands high out of the water, and is used from 

 below. 



Round the sides of the pool they have made several burrows, or 

 " washes," or " hovels," as thej- are variously called, which penetrate 

 from 20 to 80 feet into the bank, where they rise above water-level and 

 form a small chamber, in the top of which an air hole, stuffed full of 

 sticks, is made from the inside for ventilation but not for egress. 

 Between the submerged entrances to these holes, and the equally 



