236 NEWFOUNDLAND 



measures were taken for their protection a few years ago. 

 This has done much good, and the beavers have not been 

 trapped or shot to any extent. The close time, how- 

 ever, ends in October 1907, and it is certain that unless 

 further restrictions are put on the killing of this inter- 

 esting animal, the whole stock in the island will be rapidly 

 wiped out. 



The Newfoundland beavers subsist largely on the root of 

 the water-lily, Nymphea odorata, called by the Indians " beaver 

 root." They also eat the bark of the spruce and the small 

 twigs of birch. Their habits are in all particulars the same 

 as those of the Canadian beaver. There is one point which 

 I should like to mention in connection with the building of the 

 dams. Many authorities assert that the mud is carried in the 

 paws and dumped down in the place required. The Indians 

 in Newfoundland say that the mud is invariably carried in the 

 mouth both for the dam and the "lodge"; that the beaver 

 deposits it in place, and turning round quickly slides or smears 

 his tail over this natural plaster, and thus makes it set. Sir 

 Edmund Loder, who has closely watched his own beavers at 

 Leonardslea building their dam, also tells me that the mud is 

 carried in the mouth. One of the cleverest things the beaver 

 does is the way in which it anchors many branches of birch 

 in the water near the lodge or bank holes. When winter 

 freezes the pond the beaver can then dive in from the holes 

 under the ice and take such branches as it requires for food 

 into its warm den, and there devours them. 



One of the few superstitions of the Newfoundland Micmacs 

 relates to the beaver. They say that these animals come up 

 from the salt water and take up their abode in some small 

 pond. For the first three years these new-comers are very 

 wild, and it is impossible to trap, shoot, or call them. When 



