174 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



construction were often three inches in diameter, and the 

 country above, on either side, flooded to the extent of 

 nearly two feet, covering about one thousand acres of 

 meadow land. These dams possess great strength and 

 durability. In old and deserted works trees spring from 

 the soil, which is plentifully mixed with the brushwood 

 and grass covers the embankment.* Many such monu- 

 ments of the former labours of the beaver are to be seen 

 in Nova Scotia, in districts long since untenanted. 



As the beaver residing on the lakes does not build a 

 dam in the vicinity of his dwelling, the reason of the 

 strong instinct implanted in this animal to produce these 

 marvellous constructions under other circumstances be- 

 comes apparent.| Whenever, from the situation or nature 

 of the water, there is a probability of the supply becom- 

 ing shortened by drought, and to ensure sufficient water 

 to enter his dwelling from beneath the ice in winter, the 

 beaver constructs a dam below to maintain the supply of 

 water necessary to meet either of these contingencies. 

 In former years, when beaver abounded in all parts of 



* Mr. Thompson, whose writings are preserved in Canada as most valuable 

 and authentic, speaking of a beaver-dam which he saw, states : " On a fine 

 afternoon in October, 1794, the leaves beginning to fall with every breeze, 

 my guide informed me that we should have to pass over a long beaver-dam. 

 I naturally expected that we should have to lead our horses carefully over it. 

 When we came to it, we found it a stripe of apparently old solid ground, 

 covered with short grass, and wide enough for two horses to walk abreast. 

 The lower side showed a descent of seven feet, and steep, with a rill of 

 water from beneath it ; the side of the dam next the water was a gentle 

 slope. To the southward was a sheet of water of about one mile and a half 

 square, surrounded by low grassy banks. The forests were mostly of poplar 

 and aspen, with numerous stumps of the trees cut down, and partly carried 

 away by the beavers. In two places of this pond were a cluster of beaver- 

 houses like miniature villages." 



t I have, however, seen the outlet of very small lakes dammed up, 

 evidently to raise the level of the surface to some eligible site near the 

 margin, which has offered some advantage or other. 



