5 o EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



the stream. There is one instance of this latter fact 

 which is very difficult to explain. A tree of about a 

 foot in diameter grew close to the base of one of the 

 dams, leaning at a considerable angle over the dam, 

 and this, for some reason best known to themselves, 

 they had left standing long after they had cut down 

 trees at a considerable distance from the stream ; 

 but last spring they started to cut it down, and 

 down it came not, as it would be supposed, in the 

 direction in which it leaned (which would have 

 brought it right across the dam), but backwards 

 from the water, and nearly exactly in a contrary 

 direction from that in which it grew. How this was 

 done I do not pretend to say, nor why, for it was not 

 of the description of tree on which they feed (mostly 

 Scotch fir) ; but there it lay, having been down 

 some months, with all its bark on and the branches 

 not lopped off, clear of the dam and stream. 



"The mode of felling trees is very interesting; 

 their teeth cut as clean and sharp as a chisel, and 

 the modus operandi (as seen by the keeper in his 

 moonlight watches) is, a cut above and a cut below, 

 a wrench, and out comes the chip. They appear 

 never to work more than one at a time at each tree 

 i.e., so far as the cutting down is concerned and to 

 relieve one another at regular intervals, all work 

 being done at night or in the very early morning. 

 Two or more will join together to drag or roll a log to 

 the water which is too heavy for one to manage, and 

 the bark is always stripped off and stored under 

 water for winter consumption, before the branches 



