14 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



danger, they trouble themselves but little. But 

 the beaver has definite ideas of what is necessary 

 for his welfare. He plans months ahead. He 

 undertakes stupendous tasks — tasks which demand 

 skill of no mean order. Indeed, some of the most 

 important work done by them may seem at first 

 glance to be superfluous. Why, for instance, does 

 he build dams when water is abundant nearly 

 everywhere within his natural range ? Let us, 

 therefore, examine the work and see how it serves 

 a very definite purpose, and having done that we 

 will follow the beaver throughout a few years of 

 their lives and see how they live and how thoroughly 

 their various undertakings work out in the best 

 possible way. 



The most conspicuous work, so far as visible 

 results are concerned, is the dam ; and the purpose 

 it serves is not so much to make a swimming pool, 

 as some people imagine, as to keep a body of water 

 at a more or less constant level in order to ensure 

 certain ends : (1) to conceal the entrances to the 

 houses and so prevent the entrance of any land 

 enemies, (2) to be a place for the safe storage of 

 wood for food during the winter, (3) to render the 

 transporting of this wood as simple as possible, and 

 (4) to be a place of retreat in case of attack. To 

 better appreciate the value of the dam it is necessary 

 to understand the structure of the houses, for there 

 are several types. The most primitive is simply a 

 hole in a bank, with no surface work. This repre- 



