264 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



ber of animals in the lodges. The larger 

 lodges are, in the interior, about seven feel 

 in diameter, and between two and three feet 

 high, resembling a great oven. They are 

 placed near the edge of the water, although 

 actually built on or in the ground. In front, 

 the beavers scratch away the mud to secure 

 a depth of water that will enable them to 

 sink their wood deep enough to prevent its 

 being impacted in the ice when the dam is 

 frozen over, and also to allow them always 

 free egress from their lodges, so that they 

 may go to the dam and repair it if neces- 

 sary. The top of the lodge is formed by 

 placing branches of trees matted with mud, 

 grasses, moss, etc., together, until the whole 

 fabric measures on the outside from twelve 

 to twenty feet in diameter, and is six or 

 eight feet high, the size depending on the 

 number of inhabitants. The outward coating 

 is entirely of mud or earth, and smoothed off 

 as if plastered with a trowel. As beavers, 

 however, never work in the day-time, no per- 

 son, we believe, has yet seen how they perform 

 their task, or give this hard-finish to their 

 houses. This species does not use its fore-feet 

 in swimming, but for carrying burdens: this 

 can be observed by watching the young ones, 

 which suffer their fore-feet to drag by the side 



