Animals in the Wild 



[ 103 



The Beaver's Home: You can see the exterior of a beaver lodge 

 and admire the structure of the dams they build to cause water 

 to flood around it; but you cannot investigate the interior. 



If you could look inside you would see that the home is made 

 up of one large room or several smaller ones. In either case you 

 would notice openings in the floor. The beaver comes and goes 

 through these, reaching land by an underwater route. As the 

 areas in the lodge around the floor openings are wet and cold, 

 the main floor is slightly raised, somewhat like a step. The sleep- 

 ing quarters are snugly lined with wood fibers, chewed fine, or 

 with grass. In wintertime the mud plaster of the lodge freezes, 

 and the walls become so strong that even a bear cannot break 

 through. 



The Beaver's Building Methods: A popular myth about the beaver's 

 building technique is that he uses his large flat-ribbed tail as a 



W 5 ^^ !/">_ ~~ /F7 



THE EAGER BEAVER 



Beavers' work is never done. They are forever gnawing trees into neat lengths, 

 building canals for floating their logs, assembling tons of material for constructing 

 dams, or else putting together one of their snug housing developments, complete 

 with a hole on top for ventilation. Mostly, beavers do their work at night. 



