78 HABITS OF THE BEAVER. 



comfortable abodes, while their unremitting labor and 

 indefatigable industry are models to be followed by the 

 working man. The lodge of the beaver is generally ex- 

 cavated in the bank of the stream, the entrance being 

 invariably under water ; but not unfrequently, where the 

 banks are flat, they construct lodges in the stream itself, 

 of a conical form, of limbs and branches of trees woven 

 together and cemented with mud. For the purpose of 

 forming dams, for the necessary timber for their lodges, 

 or for the bark which they store for their winter's supply 

 of food, the beaver often fells a tree eight or ten inches 

 in diameter, throwing it, with the skill of an expert woods- 

 man, in any direction he pleases, always selecting a tree 

 above stream, in order that the logs may be carried down 

 with it to their destination. The log is then chopped 

 into small lengths, and pushing them into the water, the 

 beaver steers them to the lodge or dam. These trees are 

 as cleanly cut as they could be by a sharp axe, the goug- 

 ing in furrows made by the animal's strong teeth cutting 

 into the very centre of the trunk, the notch being as 

 smooth as sawed wood. 



With his broad tail, which is twelve or fourteen inches 

 long, and above four in breadth, and covered with a thick 

 scaly skin, the beaver plasters his lodge, thus making it 

 perform all the offices of a hand. They say that, when 

 the beaver's tail becomes dry, the animal dies, but whe- 



