HISTORY OF VERMONT. UT 



the wood, others are equally engaged in carry- 

 ing on the eartKern part of the work. The 

 earth is brought in their mouths, formed into a 

 kind of mortar with their feet and tails, and 

 spread over the vacancies between the stakes. 

 Saplings, and the small branches of trees, are 

 twisted and worked up with the nmd and slime^ 

 until all the vacancies are filled up ; and no 

 crevice is left in any part of the work, for the 

 water to find a passage through. The magni- 

 tude and extent of the dams, w^hich the beavers 

 thus construct, is much laiger than we should 

 imagine was possible to be effected, by such la- 

 bourers, or instrumcntSi At tlie bottom, the 

 dam is from six to twelve feet thick ; at the 

 top, it is genendly two or three feet in widths 

 In that part of the dam, which is opposed to 

 the current, the stakes are placed obliquely ; 

 but on that side where the water is to fall, the 

 stakes are placed in a perpendiculoT direction ; 

 and the dam assumes the same form, and posi- 

 tion, as the stakesi The extent of these worksj 

 is from fifty to an hundred feet in length ; and 

 always of such an height, as to effect the pur- 

 poses they have in view. The ponds which 

 are formed by these dams, are of all dimensions; 

 from four or five, to five or six hundred acres. 

 They are generally spread over lands abound- 

 ing with trees j and bushes, of the softest wood: 

 Maple, birch, alder^ poplar, willow, &c. The 

 better to preserve their dams, the beavers al- 

 ways leave sluices, or passages near the middle, 

 for the redundant waters to pass off. These 

 sluices are generally about eighteen inches^ in 

 w^idth, and depth ; and as many in number, as 

 the waters of the stream generally require* 



YOL. I, P 



