Canadian Beaver 
It is frequently reinforced by other dams just below, that 
back up the water against the first and relieve it of a part of 
the pressure. 
As the water rises the beavers watch the shores carefully 
and every depression in the bank likely to lead the water off 
to one side is promptly dammed and the pond at last brought 
to the desired level. 
During the summer they live an easy and care free life 
along the banks like muskrats, feeding on lily roots and_ bark 
and green twigs generally; but with the coming on of autumn 
their recreation ends and they go back to work once more, re- 
pairing the dam against the coming of the fall rains and erect- 
ing their winter cabin at the edge of the water. As before 
stated the cabin is very similar to that of the muskrat, being 
roughly built of sticks and brush, and finally plastered outside 
with sods just before the pond freezes over. 
Knowing that long before the ice melts in the spring the 
natural food supply in the pond is likely to be exhausted, these 
prudent creatures lay in an ample supply of birch, poplar and 
cotton wood for the winter. 
The trees, which at times are only to be found at consider- 
able distances from the water, are felled and cut into con- 
venient lengths and dragged down to the pond along paths 
cleared through the undergrowth for the purpose. At times the 
beavers even find it worth their while to dig channels in low 
swampy ground, and along these they float their wood out into 
the pond. It is stacked in a loose pile near the cabin, the ends of 
the sticks buried in the mud so that they may not be floated 
off when the water rises to fill the pond. After the pond is 
full and its surface frozen over in the winter, the beavers cut 
strips off the bark under the ice when other food falls short ; 
But all winter long they are still hunting for fresh supplies, 
following the pond’s winding margin beneath the ice and ex- 
ploring the various inlets and little brooks that reach back into 
the woods, digging up roots from the bottom and gnawing the 
bark from bushes and trees surrounded by water when the pond 
is filled. And so the winter passes quietly with them, allowing 
them only an occasional obscure glimpse of the sun when the 
wind chances to sweep a portion of the clear ice above them 
free from snow. 
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