72 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



Another common example of their intelligence 

 is shown by the way in which they will add water 

 to a brook whose supply seems inadequate to their 

 needs. They will turn other streams into the one 

 which is failing them, by digging ditches to carry 

 the water, by even diverting an entire stream towards 

 their own, and by tapping springs by means of 

 small ditches. Their comprehension of the entire 

 problem of water supply and control is so altogether 

 wonderful as to be almost incredible, and even so 

 some people claim that they do not reason. 



Numberless incidents of a more or less similar 

 nature could be told to prove that by the means 

 employed in doing the work the beaver reasons 

 with the utmost clearness, while the results of their 

 work justify us in believing that they thoroughly 

 appreciate what are, or should be, the ends. 

 Nothing proves this better than the building of the 

 canals to which reference has already been made. 

 These artificial waterways are apparently con- 

 structed with but one end in view : the simplifying 

 of transporting cuttings of wood. Carrying and 

 pushing logs and branches on land, whether through 

 the tree-strewn and moss-covered forests, or over 

 the hummocky grass lands, is a difficult and tedious 

 task to be avoided whenever possible. But as the 

 trees which are growing near the pond, whether 

 natural or the result of beaver work, are cut down, 

 the supply naturally recedes further and further 

 with each season. To counteract this the beaver 



