LILY LAKE beaver house, in which the old 

 spent the drouthy winter, was a large 

 roughly rounded affair that measured twenty-two 

 feet in diameter. It rose only four feet above the 

 normal water-line. This house had been three 

 times altered and enlarged, and once raised in 

 height. Its mud walls were heavily reinforced with 

 polelike sticks, which were placed at the junctures 

 of the enlargements. The one large room was more 

 than twelve feet in diameter. Near the centre 

 stood a support for the upper part of the house. 

 This support was about one and a half by two 

 and a half feet, and was composed for the most 

 part of sticks. But few houses have this support ; 

 commonly the room is vaulted. The room itself 

 averaged two and a half feet high. It had four 

 entrances. 



A house commonly has two entrances, but it 

 may have only one or as many as five. Thus the 

 way to the outer world from the inside of the 

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