LAKE DWELLEKS. 173 



solid construction of interwoven bushes and poles, dam- 

 ming up the water behind to a height of between three 

 and four feet, and completely altering the features of the 

 brook, which from this point was all still water. We 

 landed on the top to open out a portion, and thereby 

 facilitate the canoes being lifted over. Some of the 

 work was quite fresh, and green leaves tipped the ends 

 of projecting branches ; whilst on the shore lay a pile of 

 water-rotted material that had been removed, and evi- 

 dently considered unserviceable. Stones and mud were 

 plentifully intermixed with the bushes, which were 

 mostly cut into lengths of twelve to eighteen feet, and 

 woven together across the stream. The top, which 

 would support us all without yielding, was about two 

 feet broad, and the dam thickened below the surface. 

 Some stout bushes leaned against the construction in 

 front. They were planted in the bed of the stream; 

 and, as Glode said, were used as supports in making the 

 dam. Above was a long meadow of wild grass to which 

 the white gaunt stems of dead pines, drowned ages since 

 by the heightened level of the stream, imparted a deso- 

 late appearance, and near the head of which the beavers 

 had their habitations." 



This dam, and one or two others which I had an 

 opportunity of observing, was built straight across the 

 stream, but it is a well authenticated fact that in larger 

 works, where the channel is broader, and liable to heavy 

 waters, the dam is made convex to the current. Some- 

 times a small island in the centre is taken advantage of, 

 and the dam built out to it from either bank, as in- 

 stanced by a very large one noticed on the Sable river, a 

 few miles west of Eossignol, where the sticks used in its 



