be especially constructed to facilitate 

 this operation. The length of this canal 

 we estimated to be twenty-five hundred 

 feet. 



Beavers appear to prefer the bark of 

 smaller trees, but they do not hesitate to 

 cut down a large one when necessary. 

 In such case they carry away the 

 branches only. A poplar tree eighteen 

 inches in diameter was cut on the shore 

 of our pond and felled into the water. 

 The branches that .remained above the 

 surface were cut off and carried to the 

 storage pile. Those that were under 

 water were left and were cut off under 

 the ice during the following winter. 



Beavers are generally peaceable. They 

 have many admirable traits. Individ- 

 uals of one colony will assist those of 

 another in strenuous operations much 

 as pioneer humans helped each other in 

 building log cabins, in barn raisings, 

 etc. Many tales are told. One, of a 

 family whose house had been destroyed, 

 being taken into another's house and 



57 



