THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 29 



have yet much to learn about beaver, and many 

 of our ideas as to the v^hy and wherefore of what 

 they do are based on surmise, which is the result 

 of our very insignificant knowledge. 



The situations chosen for the lodges vary entirely 

 with conditions. In some parts of the country 

 the beaver appear to realise the advantage of 

 placing their lodges on the north or north-western 

 side of lakes and streams. By doing this they gain 

 the heat of the sun, which melts the ice away from 

 both bank and lodge and so liberates the animals 

 at the earliest possible date. This I have observed 

 particularly in Newfoundland, where most of the 

 lodges seen during a period of several years were 

 thus situated with apparently no other object in 

 view. 



Concealment seems very frequently to be care- 

 fully considered, in which cases the lodge is hidden 

 in dense alder thickets or among closely-growing 

 tamarack or spruce. So effectual is the conceal- 

 ment afforded by the scrubby growth that, were 

 it not for the dams or the peeled wood which is 

 found floating near the shore, their existence 

 would be unknown even by those whose eyes are 

 trained to see clearly. As an instance of this, I 

 remember going to see a place where for months 

 some beaver had with untiring persistence built 

 a dam in a railway culvert. Once or twice each 

 week during their activities the section men visited 

 the culvert and pulled out all the accumulation of 



