610 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



vented the water from flooding the ice and rising into 

 their house or causing uncontrollable leaks in the 

 dam. 



The domes of their houses freeze hard in winter, 

 and while wolves and deer and all kinds of animals 

 pass freely over the frozen ponds, it is impossible for 

 any creature, except a man with an ax, to open a 

 beaver house in winter. 



I would not ascribe human reason to the beavers, 

 but in the sphere of their own peculiar life and activi- 

 ties they do certainly display such a marvellous instinct 

 and adaptability that one is ever tempted to ascribe 

 at least a high degree of intelligence to them. How- 

 ever, comparing the beaver's intelligence with that of 

 wolves, domestic dogs, coyotes and foxes, I should 

 rate it rather low. The wild flesh-eaters have every 

 man's hand against them, but still they hold their 

 own. With remarkable adaptability they have learned 

 to avoid guns and traps, hounds and even poison. The 

 beaver has become wonderfully adapted to an aquatic 

 life and to the advantages of his ponds, dams and 

 houses, but as compared with the wild canines the 

 castors seem a dull tribe. It is easy to trap all or 

 nearly all of a colony of beavers, but nobody ever 

 trapped all of a pack of wolves. Wolves hold their 

 own wherever they find food and shelter. Beavers 

 became extinct over immense areas where their food 

 and shelter existed in abundance, because they adhered 

 stubbornly to the ways of their ancestors. They were 

 guided too largely by instinct and were too slow to 

 learn. 



I shall illustrate by three instances how tenacious- 

 ly beavers follow the bidding of instinct and how slow 

 and dull they are in grasping a new situation. 



A pair of beavers built a dam across a creek which 

 furnishes the water for the State Lodge in the Itasca 

 forest. Twice the dam was torn out and twice the 

 beavers came at night and put it in again. Then a 

 lighted lantern was left near the place. The first 

 night they avoided the place, but during the second 

 night they again built their dam. Then in despair, 

 the lodge keeper set a steel trap and caught one of the 

 beavers. When after daylight the man approached 

 the trap, the animal broke away, leaving one of his 



toes in the trap, and at last this beaver and his mate 

 understood that this creek was not a safe place for 

 building a dam. 



Two other interesting instances bearing on the 

 beaver's intelligence have come to my notice. I was 

 watching beavers from my platform on Poplar Point. 

 As already told, both beavers and rats inhabit the same 

 house and both were perfectly at home with each 

 other. One evening about 7 :30 a muskrat came swim- 

 ming home with a water lily leaf, which had acci- 

 dentally turned up on edge. Almost directly below 

 me a yearling beaver was lying with his head out of 

 the water. When the rat approached him within about 

 a foot he took a sudden fright and dived and rushed 

 into the house in such a wild panic that I could see 

 only a streak of swirling water. This beaver had 

 many times seen a rat come home with a lily leaf, but 

 at the somewhat unusual position of the leaf he was 

 thrown into a panic and rushed for the house. 



One of my friends, a forester, saw a beaver on 

 shore toward evening. A rabbit hopped out of some 

 bushes near by, and the beaver rushed into the water 

 in a wild fright. There were literally thousands of 

 rabbits in the Itasca woods and the scent and shape of 

 a rabbit must have been well known to the beaver. 



This tendency to panic does not speak for a high 

 grade of intelligence, but it must be admitted that a 

 tendency to rush for the water or the house would be 

 beneficial to the beavers against their four-footed ene- 

 mies. 



But though we admit freely that the Indians and 

 early writers overrated the intelligence of the beaver 

 people, their ways and works will always lure the 

 naturalist into the wilderness. 



Nature has been most sparing in the bestowal of 

 her greatest gift. Where the dim, flickering candle of 

 animal instinct and intelligence has been sufficient, 

 she has not turned on the brilliant searchlight of 

 human reason. 



The works of the beaver, executed under the guid- 

 ance of a human mind, would be nothing remarkable; 

 only when accomplished by a creature guided by in- 

 stinct and a humble animal mind do they appear truly 

 wonderful. 



CHESTNUT blight has already done damage in 

 Pennsylvania estimated at from $9,000,000 to $10,- 

 000. No tree attacked by it has ever been known to re- 

 cover, although dozens of fake remedies have been 

 brought out. 



i~\ M. BUTLER, assistant district forester of the 

 ^-'* United States Forest Service, Albuquerque, New 

 Mexico, has been appointed assitant director of the For- 

 est Products Laboratory, at Madison, Wisconsin, and 

 has assumed his duties. Mr. Butler has been engaged in 

 Forest Service work for ten years, principally in the 

 West, where he was at different times assistant district 

 forester in various districts. 



T TNRESTRICTED grazing in the woodlot is a losing 

 proposition. The farm woodlot cannot serve profit- 

 ably for the production of timber and also as a pasture 

 for stock. Either all grazing should be stopped and the 

 area given over exclusively to the growth and reproduc- 

 tion of trees, or else the trees should be cut and the land 

 used for the production of grass. 



TT has cost France over $30,000,000 to learn that de- 

 nuded forest areas must be reforested. Pennsylvania 

 and other states are learning the same lesson in the same 

 way. 



