16 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



soaked grass, roots and mud are employed to fill 

 in the openings, with the result of making the 

 whole structure nearly light-tight and practically 

 water-tight. As soon as the nights are cold enough 

 to freeze, the surface is plastered over with several 

 inches of mud which is usually gathered from the 

 pond or river bottom. This fact, has, I know 

 been questioned even by such authorities as 

 Thompson Seton, who in his excellent book* says : 

 " It (the beaver) never plasters the lodge with mud 

 outside. All lodges are finished outside with 

 sticks." This is more or less true during the 

 earlier part of the season, but in most cases which 

 have come under my observation the houses were 

 thickly plastered over immediately before the 

 actual coming of winter.^ The mud, of course, 

 freezes into a soUd and intensely hard protective 

 coating — so hard that even the wolves cannot tear 

 a way through ; but it breaks away early in the 



* " Life Histories of Northern Animals." 



f Enos A. Mills, " In Beaver World," states that, " In Montana 

 of twenty-seven beaver houses which I examined twenty-one 

 received mud covering." In Morgan's *' The American Beaver " 

 there is the following convincing statement: "Late in the fall, 

 each season, the sides of their lodges, nearly to the summit, are 

 in some cases plastered over with mud, which soon freezing, 

 materially increases their strength." And James Hearne (in 

 (1769 — 1772) states that: "It is a great part of the policy of 

 these animals to cover, to plaster, as it is usually called, the out- 

 side of their houses every fall with fresh mud, and as late as 

 possible in the autumn, even when the frost becomes pretty 

 severe." 



