92 THE WILDERNESS OF THE UPPER YUKON 



beaver an intelligence which enables it to reason out a 

 method of felling trees which shall determine the direc- 

 tion of their fall. The size of the trees thus felled varied 

 from one to fifteen inches in diameter. The purpose of 

 felling them is to gnaw off the branches and bring them 

 to the houses for a supply of winter food. All winter 

 they subsist on the bark. Houses of a circular shape, 

 usually constructed against the bank near the fallen trees, 

 consist of an irregular mass of sticks of different sizes, 

 with sometimes a few small logs, and the whole chinked 

 with earth. The green branches are packed about the 

 houses and, undoubtedly, the beaver finds a way of 

 reaching them in the winter. 



In suitable tributaries and small channels, where the 

 river has cut a course around the land, the beavers make 

 dams, which back up the water to form lakes, and there 

 construct larger houses. When we were on the Mac- 

 Millan the beavers existed there in a practically undis- 

 turbed state, like that of beavers in early times in other 

 parts of North America. Martens and lynxes were so 

 abundant, and the fur of the former was so much more 

 valuable that the trappers had not yet attempted the 

 more difficult task of trapping the beavers. Fortunately 

 but few Indians hunt on the MacMillan River. The 

 lower part of the river is included in the hunting territory 

 of the tribe at Lake Tatlaman. They are reduced to a 

 few families. Beyond, as far as the Forks, the territory 

 belongs to the Indians living at the mouth of the Little 

 Salmon River, but they never come to the MacMillan 

 except in winter, and then they seldom trap beavers. 



