94 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



harvesting. The trees were nearly a hundred yards 

 from the edge of the pond on the further side of a 

 piece of boggy thicket. So before any wood could 

 be brought to the water a roadway had to be made. 

 Part of this was really a canal which was cut straight 

 through the swamp and from which all obstructions 

 were carefully removed. When finished it was 

 about three feet in width and a little over a foot 

 deep. On shore the path was rather wider, and led 

 directly from the end of the canal, to the centre of 

 the grove where it forked so that three different 

 paths gave access to the field of operations. This 

 accomplished, the beaver began felling the trees. 

 As each one dropped, and it took but an hour or so 

 to bring down a tree six to eight inches in diameter, 

 all the branches were neatly cut off close to the 

 trunk ; these were carried down the road to the 

 canal, the smaller ones being held, butt foremost, 

 with the teeth, while the beaver either walked on 

 all fours or only on his hind legs with the tail used 

 as a balance. Some branches which were extra 

 large were dragged along as the animal walked 

 backwards until he reached the canal. From that 

 point the work of transporting the wood became 

 easier and he swam, leading the floating load with 

 his teeth. In this way he proceeded through the 

 canal then across the pond to the lodge near which 

 they had decided to place the wood-pile. Some- 

 times, instead of immediately diving and taking the 

 cutting to the bottom they would leave it floating 



