BEAVEE DAMS. 153 



putting on airs. All at once the water stopped ! " Mr. 

 Srnarty" mounted his horse and rode off to see what 

 accident had happened, because it could not be the beavers 

 this time. 



This was the "accident:" Dummy had been ignominiously 

 pulled down, his club taken from him, his stone feet cut off. 

 Then he had been floated down the ditch some little way to 

 where there was a short flume, and stuffed into it, middle 

 first, while his head and legs had been neatly tucked into 

 the corners, and all crevices plastered up with river-mud. 

 Mr. Beaver was not out-smarted, but somebody else was 

 badly. 



The conduct of the beavers on this occasion was unique in 

 my experience, for when trapping them, I had invariably 

 found that the slightest human taint near the trap, or on the 

 banks in its vicinity, prevented any beaver approaching. 

 Their unusual boldness on this occasion may have arisen 

 from the fact that the occurrence happened at the height of 

 the breeding season, when of course they were unusually 

 anxious to keep their pool full, and they may also have had 

 a more than commonly sagacious leader j or possibly the 

 place had never been trapped, for it was in a wild and unex- 

 plored region, quite out of any recorded trapping-ground, 

 and so the beaver's instinctive fear of the scent of man had 

 not been increased by sad experience. 



The way in which the beavers build their dams has been 

 the subject of much speculation. They have been watched 

 while engaged in the construction of that portion of them 

 which is near the surface of the water. I have often, indeed, 

 watched them myself, by moonlight ; but their dams are 



