THE BEAVER. 167 



has been asserted : a mistake that has arisen from their 

 giving a flap with the tail when plunging from the out- 

 side of the house into the water when they are startled, 

 as well as at other times. 



" ' The houses when complete have a dome-like figure, 

 with walls several feet thick, and rising from five to 

 six feet above the water; a projection called "the 

 angle " by the hunters, and beyond the reach of frost ; 

 and on this, and also under water, is laid up their 

 winter store, a mass of branches of willows and other 

 trees, on the bark of which they feed. These they 

 stack up, sinking each layer by means of mud and 

 stones, and often accumulating more than a cartload of 

 materials. 



"'Besides these winter houses, in which they are 

 shut up during the severity of the season, they have 

 also a number of holes in the bank, which serve them 

 as places of retreat when any injury is offered to their 

 houses, and in these they are generally taken. 



"'The entrance to these holes is deep below the 

 water, which fills a great part of the vault itself. When 

 the hunter forces the houses of the beaver in winter, 

 the animals swim beneath the ice to these retreats, the 

 entrances to which are discovered by striking the ice 

 along the banks with an iron ice-chisel, the sound in- 

 dicating to practised ears the exact spot. They cut a 

 hole in the house and surprise their booty. During the 

 summer the beavers roam about at pleasure ; and it is 

 at this season that they fell the wood necessary for re- 



