THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 11 



Others he carried down to the water and swam 

 with them to the harvest pile. Nothing must be 

 wasted. Every shrub or sapHng which obstructed 

 the way had to be cut down ; if it was not good 

 enough for food it could at least be used in the 

 construction of house or dam. And the beaver 

 continued his work as though he fully realised the 

 importance of doing it well and thoroughly. 

 Occasionally, he was joined by the other members 

 of his family, and the big yellow full moon rising 

 above the tree tops watched the industrious little 

 animals as it had watched their predecessors for 

 thousands of years. With each generation the 

 same work had been carried on with the same 

 persistence, the same regularity and in the same 

 way. The only visible change was that in former 

 years, before man had begun the work of destroy- 

 ing the harmless creatures, and which, since the 

 arrival of the white people of the eastern world, had 

 been so ruthlessly carried on, the beavers did their 

 wood-cutting and dam-building almost as much by 

 daylight as by the light of the stars and moon.* 

 But the little fur-bearers had learned gradually 

 that the sun was not their friend ; it offered them 

 no protection from the deadly persecutions of their 

 two-footed enemies, and so they had come to work 

 only under the friendly cover of darkness, or by the 



* Although James Hearne, who was a most careful observer, 

 states that, even in the latter half of the eighteenth century, *' All 

 their work is done in the night." 



