VI 



Beavers 151 



with one's free hand. The last rattle near the body- 

 is always black, as if filled with coagulated blood. 

 The rattles have evidently nothing to do with the 

 spine, but are altered scales, just as the rhinoceros 

 horn is altered hair. I believe that I had a shot at 

 a big black wolverine, at least I don't know what 

 other animal it could have been. It was late at 

 night, and I could see a strange black mass moving 

 in an uncanny way over the sand ; had it not been 

 so late, and had we not been doubtful about reaching 

 camp, I should have followed it. I have learnt a 

 deal about beavers. They only make dams when 

 the streams are too small for them to splash about 

 and bathe in, performances which give them great 

 delight. They don't build houses in this part of the 

 world, but live in holes in the bank, generally three 

 in number, one above the other, a bedroom, a store 

 room where they keep their stores of red willow for 

 winter use, and a sort of bath-room. The big, hay- 

 cock-like looking heaps which one sees in the 

 shallow water, above the dam, are the houses of the 

 musk rat ; I saw one yesterday at least six feet high. 

 The beavers are about all the winter, they do not 

 hybernate. Though we have made our traps pay 

 for themselves, our success has not been great ; the 

 nights have been too cold and windy for the animals 

 to move about much. We have killed no swans, and 

 very few birds of any kind ; they are much scarcer 

 than they were last year, I suppose they have been 

 scared away by the infernal fires. The country is 



