THE BEAVER. 209 

cient depth of water to swim to many new feeding chances 
around the shores, even in winter beneath the ice, and deep 
water in front of his house to store his winter’s wood for food ; 
this seems to come very close to reasoning. 
A cute fellow is the beaver; and just here not to be too par- 
tial to one and unjust to others, while we would give him all 
credit, acknowledge him an industrious worker, an ingenious 
architect and a wide awake fellow when abroad, knowing 
just when to dive beneath the surface, rather too quickly too, 
as he sees or hears the canoe coming around the bend, yet we 
have many others deserving of much notice, and he should 
not have the credit of being the only bright one dwelling 
away back in the wildwood. Among the many of us, it may 
not be the greater part, that realize how very near many of 
our forest dwellers approach to intelligence and under- 
standing. 
The beavers home is built close to the edge of the stream 
where there is a good depth of water, the house being large 
or small, according to the size of the family; the usual size 
seen, for a small family, is some four or five feet in diameter 
at the base; four feet high, nearly oval in shape, sloping 
downward to turn off the rain. Many sticks and bushes that 
grow handy they use in its construction, gathering and bring- 
ing for the house all the shoots and cane like sticks from 
which they have formerly eaten the bark and left beside the 
stream, with large flakes of fibrous roots, sods and mud 
which they dig handy by. The many sticks working admira- 
bly as binders, keeping all in place, and at the last covered 
with the muddy sods placed grass side down, which it is 
stated that on a rainy day, using their broad, flat tails as 
trowels, they smooth up to a nicety. Often in the fall along 
