BEAVER.—Castor Fiber. 
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are about three feet in length, and vary extremely in thickness. Generally, they are about 
six or seven inches in diameter, but they have been known to measure no less than 
eighteen inches in diameter. An almost incredible number of these logs are required for 
the completion of one dam, as may be supposed from the fact that a single dam will 
sometimes be three hundred yards in length, ten or twelve feet thick at the “bottom, and 
of a height varying according to the depth of water. 
Before employing the logs in this structure, the Beavers take care to separate the bark, 
which they carry away, and lay up for a winter store of food. 
Near the dams are built the Beaver-houses, or “lodges,” as they are termed ; edifices as 
remarkable in their way as that which has just been mentioned. They are chiefly 
composed of branches, moss, and mud, and will accommodate five or six Beavers together. 
The form of an ordinarily sized Beaver’s lodge is circular, and its cavity is about seven 
feet in diameter by three feet in height. The walls of this structure are extremely thick, 
so that the external measurement of the same lodges will be fifteen or twenty feet in 
diameter, and seven or eight feet in height. The roofs are all finished off with a thick 
layer of mud, laid on w ith marvellous smoothness, and carefully renewed every year. As 
this compost of mud, moss, and branches is congealed into a solid mass by the severe frosts 
of a North American winter, it forms a very sufficient defence against the attacks of the 
Beaver’s creat enemy the wolverene, and cannot readily be broken through, even with the 
help of iron tools. ‘The precise manner in which the Beavers perform their various tasks 
is not easy to discern, as the animals work only in the dark. 
Around the lodges the Beavers excavate a rather large ditch, too deep to be entirely 
frozen, and into this ditch the various lodges open, so that the inhabitants can pass In or 
out without hindrance. This precaution is the more necessary, as they are poor 
pedestrians, and never travel by land as long as they can swim by water. Each lodge is 
inhabited by a small number of Beavers, whose beds are arranged against the wall, each 
bed being separate, and the centre of the chamber being left unoceupied. 
In order to secure a store of winter food, the Beavers take a vast number of small 
logs, and carefully fasten them under water in the close vicinity of their lodges. When 
a Beaver feels hungry, he dives to the store heap, drags out a suitable log, carries it to a 
sheltered and dry spot, nibbles the bark away, and jane either permits the stripped log 
to float down the stream, or applies it to the dam. 
