TEE BEAVER. 359 



by dam-building, which keeps the water much on the 

 same level throughout the year. In its earlier stages the 

 house resembles a gigantic bird's nest, made of mud, 

 sticks, and stones ; branches are then laid across to serve 

 as rafters, more sticks and mud being piled on the top of 

 them to complete the edifice. The beavers then burrow 

 into the pile, cut off projecting sticks, and fashion out the 

 apartment or apartments, for there are frequently more 

 than one. The walls and roof are made of great thickness, 

 4 or 5 feet, to resist the frost ; and for the same purpose 

 the roof gets a fresh plastering of mud every " fall," just 

 before the frost commences. When a house is inhabited 

 by a large family of beavers the heat they generate is so 

 great as to melt the snow on the roof, which is but 

 partially frozen. 



I never could perceive that beavers . use their tails as 

 trowels, though they have got the credit of it. I have 

 little doubt, however, but that this appendage is made to 

 serve some useful purpose in the plastering line, else why 

 should it, unlike other amphibious animals, have the tail 

 flat horizontally. If of no other use, it certainly makes a 

 comfortable seat for them. 



Beavers do not inhabit the same house for more than 

 three or four successive years. The reason of this is 

 obvious. It is easier to build a new house, where wood is 

 plentiful, than to haul their provisions a long distance to 

 the old one. Hence, on streams and lakes inhabited by 

 beavers there are always a great number of camps in all 

 stages of repair and dilapidation, also dams without end ; 

 but these latter are always kept in repair within half a 

 mile or so of the dwelling-house. The series of ponds thus 



