1 62 Trails to Woods and Waters 



falls. Usually, however, they confine them- 

 selves to trees a foot or less in diameter, as 

 these logs are more easily handled, both in 

 dam building and as food. 



"As busy as a beaver" is a proverb, but 

 like many another proverb, it is only partly 

 true. For two or three months in the year the 

 beaver is a very busy fellow, but the rest of 

 the year, he is one of the laziest inhabitants of 

 woods and waters. All through the winter, 

 from the time that the first thick ice locks him 

 under the water, until it breaks up in the 

 spring, he sleeps in his lodge. When hungry 

 he nibbles away at his store of bark and if he 

 wants exercise he goes for a swim in the lake 

 to keep up his muscle. Then when the spring 

 rains unlock the ice door above him, and he 

 is free again, the male beaver who is over three 

 years of age, goes on his annual pilgrimage, 

 through lakes and streams. 



He does not care much where he goes, as 

 long as he can find plenty of water with tim- 

 ber or brush near by. 



All through the summer months he wan- 



