cooperate in accomplishing community work. It 

 used to be believed, and possibly it was true, that 

 only the members of a family, or the beaver of 

 one house, united in doing the general work of 

 the colony. It was a common belief that seven 

 beaver inhabited a house ; perhaps eight was the 

 number of the Rocky Mountain region. At the 

 present time the number in a house is from one 

 to thirty. 



Beaver have been driven from most of the 

 streams and lake-shores, and now maintain them- 

 selves with difficulty in the places which they 

 inhabit. In surviving they probably have had to 

 sacrifice a few old customs and to adopt some 

 new ones, and it is likely that these changes 

 sometimes call for larger houses so as to care for 

 the increased number of beaver which conditions 

 now compel to live in one locality. A number of 

 instances have come under my notice where bea- 

 ver were driven from their colony either by fire 

 or by the aggressiveness of trappers ; these moved 

 on to other scenes, where they cast their lot with 

 the beaver of another colony, and apparently 

 were received with every welcome. Immediately 

 21 



