00-KOO-HOO PLAYS THE GAME 121 



legs and are firmly supported by the tripod formed by the 

 spreading out of their hind feet and tail. They generally 

 choose trees nearest the water on an inclined bank, and usually 

 leaning toward the stream; and while they show no particular 

 skill in felhng trees in a certain position, they do display great 

 perseverance, for if it happens, as it sometimes does, that a tree 

 in its descent is checked and eventually held up by its neigh- 

 bours, the beavers will cut the trunk for the second time, and 

 in some cases even for the third time, in order to bring it down. 



At night I have frequently sat by the hour at a time, with 

 the brush-screened bow of my canoe within ten feet of a party 

 of beavers, while they were busily engaged in cutting the 

 branches off a tree that they had felled into the water the 

 previous evening. They work quickly, too, for some mornings 

 I have paddled past a big tree lying in the water, which they 

 had dropped the night before and — on returning next day — 

 have found all the branches removed, though some of them 

 would have measured five inches in diameter. But watching 

 beavers work at night is not only interesting, it is easy to do, 

 and I have frequently taken both women and children to share 

 in the sport. Sometimes, right in the heart of the wilderness, 

 I have placed children within fifteen feet of beavers while they 

 were engaged in cutting up a tree. 



When branches measure from one to three inches in diameter 

 they are usually cut in lengths of from five to ten feet, and the 

 thicker the branch the shorter they cut the lengths. If the 

 cutting is done on land, the butt of the long thinner length is 

 seized by the beaver's teeth and with the weight resting upon 

 the animal's back, is dragged along the ground — over a spe- 

 cially cleared road — and eventually deposited in the water. The 

 shorter lengths, sometimes no longer than a couple of feet, but 

 measuring perhaps six or eight inches in diameter, are rolled 

 along the ground by the beaver pushing the log with the fore- 

 feet or shoulder. When the wood is placed in the water, the 



