asserted by those who think they know, 

 that in this matter a beaver never makes 

 a mistake. That he also stores an extra 

 amount of food for an unusually long 

 and severe winter. So far as I have 

 observed, they seem to come through 

 the winter in good physical condition. 



A picture, which I have longed to 

 secure on a film, but which, so far, I 

 have only been able to fix on the retina 

 of an eye, represents a young beaver 

 about the size of a kitten, not fully 

 grown, in an upright position, holding 

 in his two hands and against his breast 

 a gob of mud, while he laboriously and 

 clumsily struggles up the steep side of 

 his house, on the roof of which he is 

 about to deposit his burden. In the 

 water, towing a young log or a bushy 

 branch, he is much more at home and 

 more graceful in his movements. 



The following spring there came out 

 of our beaver house, the Chief Engineer, 

 his wife, four yearlings and a new 

 family of five babies. The "old man' 1 



34 



