134 THE BEAVER. 



he vies with the monkey in the use he can make of them. The 

 hind-feet are webbed, and with these together with his tail, 

 which acts as a rudder he is enabled to swim rapidly through 

 the water. The beaver is a rodent, with a short head and 

 broad blunt snout, and his incisor teeth are remarkably large 

 and hard, enabling him to bite through wood with wonderful 



THE BEAVER. 



ease and rapidity. So great is their hardness, that formerly 

 the Indians were accustomed to use them as knives for cutting 

 bone and fashioning their horn-tipped spears. 



The beaver, it has been said, always chooses banks by 

 the side of a lake or river of sufficient depth to escape being 

 frozen to the bottom, even during the hardest frost. Thus, 

 he can at all times obtain a supply of water, on which his 



