346 



BEAVER. 



climate or season ; but as they are inucn more active 

 during summer than during winter, it is probable that 

 they eat much less during the latter period. Indeed 

 it has been found that beavers which have been kept 

 in a state of solitary confinement from early youth, 

 and have not required to exert themselves either in 

 the finding of food, or in the constructing of winter 

 habitations, have spent a very considerable portion of 

 time in a dormant, or, at all events, in an indolent 

 state. Others, taken later in life, have shown more 

 sictivity, and have displayed more of a peculiar in- 

 stinct in their nature, as will appear from a notice of 

 one which we shall quote in the sequel. 



But whatever may be their habits in a state of con- 

 finement and their habits there, or at all events their 

 propensities, are not solitary, inasmuch as they 

 evince an attachment to those who are kind to them 

 they all, in a state of nature, make some preparations 

 for the approach of winter, and the nature of those 

 preparations seems in a great measure to depend on 

 the numbers which are in the vicinity of each other 

 during the summer. If scattered far apart they must 

 be as solitary during one season as another ; but when 

 they are near each other they can associate. In the 

 former circumstances they burrow for their winter ha- 

 bitations ; and in the latter they partly excavate the 

 ground, and partly build. Their fore-paws are well 

 constructed for the first of these operations, and they 

 are by no means unserviceable in the latter. 



The burrow of the beaver, even when formed for 

 a single pair or a solitary animal, has usually two 

 openings one under the surface of the water, by 

 which the animal can escape into that fluid for pro- 

 tection, or fetch provisions from it, as occasion may 

 require ; and a smaller one towards the land, through 

 which atmospheric air may come for the supply of the 

 animal in breathing. Other than these two apertures, 

 and some other animals have more than two, there is 

 no indication of superior ingenuity about the burrow 

 of the beaver. It is, indeed, much inferior to that of 

 the common mole, and those of many other animals. 



Though the beaver thus constructs its burrow on 

 the bank, with an opening under water, water is 

 not absolutely necessary to its existence, or even to 

 its health. It is altogether a land animal in its breath- 

 ing and circulation ; and while it is active these go on 

 with moderate rapidity, though not so quick as in 

 many of the mammalia. Such being the nature of 

 its vital system, it is unable to remain under water for 

 any great length of time. Both the nostrils and the 

 ears are so constructed as to close and exclude the 

 water when the head of the animal is immersed ; but 

 as the beaver only occasionally works with the head 

 under water, and does not require to feed with it in 

 that state, it cannot remain nearly so long without 

 coming up to breathe as the seal, which is a fisher, 

 and as such dependent on the water for its food. The 

 eyes of the beaver, of course, require no protection 

 from the water when it has occasion to use them 

 under the surface, because the eye of no animal is 

 injured by simple contact with water. Persons who 

 accustom themselves so far to it as to be able to get 

 the better of the shock, which takes place upon 

 immersion, can see quite well in the water when they 

 dive. 



From what appears to be the principal use of 

 water to the beavers, we can form some estimate of 

 the contrivances to which they resort for keeping it 

 at the same level in places where they live in societies. 



The nature of the places is such that the animals 

 cannot range for their food in winter as they do in 

 summer. The trees are leafless, the ground is 

 covered with snow, and those twigs which they can 

 reach with ease in summer are buried under it. They 

 must therefore collect a store : that store must be 

 proportional to the numbers ; and if these are con- 

 siderable, it must be fetched from some distance, and 

 the greater, the longer they have resided in the same 

 neighbourhood. The reason of this last fact will 

 become apparent when it is considered that the 

 winter food of the beaver must be the bark of twigs 

 of more than one year's growth. They are not 

 climbers, and then they cannot reach any higher than 

 when they stand on the hind legs supported by the 

 tail, in the tripod fashion which has been mentioned. 

 A number of them would soon clear the bushes and 

 trees to their height over a considerable space, though 

 each season might throw out shoots, sufficient for their 

 food in summer when they live dispersedly. Besides, 

 those deciduous trees, or bushes with branches within 

 the beaver's reach, do not grow over the breadth of 

 the forest in any latitude, and especially not in those 

 latitudes which beavers inhabit. On the dry " bar- 

 rens," and also on the swamps, there are pines and 

 other evergreen conifers ; and where these are tall 

 and close, as they always are in comparatively rich 

 places of the kinds which suit them, there are no 

 deciduous shrubs under them. Mosses, lichens, and 

 fungi, are then the under growth, and they are not 

 beaver's food, neither are they accessible after the 

 snow has fallen. The stores for the food, and espe- 

 cially for the winter food of the beavers, is thus found 

 in lines along the margins of the waters ; and they 

 must range these for a considerable length before 

 they can find food for a colony. 



Beavers are but lame walkers for long distances, 

 and they are of course still more incapable of car- 

 rying burdens very far. One of the stories, in- 

 deed, is that they use the tail as a sledge ; but that, 

 if one of them can be more absurd than another, 

 is the most absurd of the whole. None of the land 

 mammalia can bear much strain on the tail, and the 

 tail of the beaver appears to be quite burden enough 

 to the parts which support it when the animal walks 

 on land. Of course the possibility of its carrying a 

 load upon that organ is entirely out of the question. 



Its ordinary means of carrying, when the object is 

 not too large for being so carried, is by the mouth. 

 The billet which can be carried in this way for any 

 distance must be short and light, otherwise it would 

 constantly be getting entangled in the bushes, and 

 the animal could not fetch it along. Even when the 

 billet is larger, the mouth must still be the holding 

 instrument, and one of the points of support in the 

 carrying ; because the animal could not walk at all 

 if it held with its paws. The shoulder is the part 

 brought in to assist in these cases ; but as the billet 

 is inflexible, and cannot be carried as a fox carries 

 a goose, it lies obliquely on the shoulder, and of 

 course is a cumbrous load, and incapable of being 

 carried very far. 



To obviate the difficulties of this process, the bea- 

 ver has recourse to water carriage, in the same way 

 that man has recourse to water carriage when he 

 goes " lumbering," that is, procuring timber in the 

 wild forest. This is not the case with man in the north 

 of America only, but in all parts of the world ; and 

 thus far reason, which proceeds on the principle of 



