178 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



let in the light, the other went down at a deeper angle 

 into black water. The former was evidently the summer 

 entrance, the latter being used in winter to avoid the 

 ice. The interior was perfectly clean, no barked sticks 

 (the refuse of the food) being left about. These were all 

 distributed on the exterior, a fact which accounts for the 

 bleached appearance of many houses we have seen. In 

 turning over the materials of the house, I picked up 

 several pieces of wood of but two or three inches in 

 length, which from their shortness puzzled me as to the 

 wherefore of so much trouble being taken by the beaver 

 for so (apparently) small a purpose. My Indian, how- 

 ever, enlightened me. The side on which a young tree 

 is intended to fall is cut through, say two-thirds, the 

 other side one-third, and a little above. The tree slips 

 off the stem, but will not fall prostrate, owing to the 

 intervention of branches of adjacent trees. So the beaver 

 has to gnaw a little above to start it again, exactly on 

 the plan adopted by the lumberer in case of a catch 

 amongst the upper branches, when the impetus of another 

 slip disengages the whole tree. The occupants of the 

 house were out for the day, as they generally are 

 throughout the summer, being engaged in travelling up 

 and down the brooks, and cutting provisions for the 

 winter's consumption. Eeturning to camp by another 

 route through the woods, we had to cross a large wild 

 meadow now inundated — a most disagreeable walk 

 through long grass, the water reaching above the knees. 

 At the foot, where Glode said a little sluggish brook ran 

 out, we found a beaver-dam in process of construction — 

 the work quite fresh, and accounting for the inundation 

 of tlie meadow above.'' 



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