ti&t a 



powerful muscles. Thus equipped, he can easily 

 cut wood. These teeth grow with surprising 

 rapidity. If accident befalls them, so that the 

 upper and the lower fail to bear and wear, they 

 will grow by each other and in a short time be- 

 come of an uncanny length. I have found several 

 dead beaver who had apparently died of starvation; 

 their teeth overlapped with jaws wide open and 

 thus prevented their procuring food. For a time 

 I possessed an overgrown tooth that was crescent- 

 shaped and a trifle more than six inches long. 



Pounds considered, the beaver is a powerful 

 animal, and over a rough trail will drag objects of 

 twice his own weight or roll a log-section of gigan- 

 tic size. Up a strong current he will tow an eighty- 

 or one-hundred-pound sapling without apparent 

 effort. Three or four have rolled a one-hundred- 

 and-twenty-pound boulder into place in the dam. 

 Commonly he does things at opportune times 

 and in the easiest way. His energy is not wasted 

 in building a dam where one is not needed nor 

 in constructive work in times of high water. He 

 accepts deep water as a matter of fact and con- 

 structs dams to make shallow places deep. 



9 



