How Animals Talk 



reversed both rules, for some reason or impulse 

 which I could not fathom, except on the im- 

 probable assumption that the animals could foresee 

 the end of their work from the beginning. The 

 finished dam was an amazingly good one, as you 

 shall see; but whether it resulted from planning 

 or happy experiment or just following the water, 

 only a certain old beaver could tell. 



Since there was no other outlet to my pond, the 

 beavers were obliged to build here; but the site 

 was a poor one, the land being uniformly low on all 

 sides, and no sooner did they finish their dam than 

 the rising water flowed around both ends of it. 

 To remedy this they pushed out a curving wing 

 from either end of their first arch, so that the line 

 of their dam was now a pretty triple-curve. Again 

 and again the outgoing water crept around the 

 obstacle ; each time the beavers added other curv- 

 ing wings, now on this side, now on that, bending 

 them steadily forward till the top of their dam 

 suggested the rim of an enormous scallop-shell. 

 Then, finding the water deep enough for their 

 needs, they thrust out a straight wing from either 

 end of their dam, resting their work on the slopes 

 of two hillocks in the woods, some fifty yards 

 apart, this in a straight line, or across the hinge 

 of the scallop-shell : if measured on the curves, their 

 dam was three or four times that length. Their 



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