FAMINE IN BEAVER-LAND 213 



nelling through gravelly, frozen earth is near 

 impossible for them. 



They then attempted to cut a hole upward 

 through the two feet of ice, as I found out later 

 when the ice was breaking up. And they had 

 almost succeeded. On the edge of their house 

 they had raised a working foundation of mud and 

 sticks and gnawed upward to within three or 

 four inches of the surface. Beavers are expert 

 gnawers and have been known with their power- 

 ful teeth and strong jaws to gnaw off and fell 

 trees more than two feet in diameter. Perhaps 

 they might have succeeded eventually, but they 

 apparently found another and better way out 

 of the pond. 



What they finally did was to tunnel out 

 through the unfrozen earth beneath the bottom 

 of the dam. They had commenced on the 

 bottom of the pond and driven a fifteen-inch 

 tunnel nearly level through the base of the dam, 

 and a foot or two beneath the water and below 

 frostline. This came out in the ice-covered 

 stream channel, beneath the frozen earth. As 

 this tunnel had to be dug under water, it must 

 have been slow work and to have constantly 

 called for relay efforts. When a working beaver 

 had to breathe it was necessary for him to swim 

 to the house and climb up to the floor, above 

 water level, in order to obtain air. 



