CASTOROLOGIA. 77 



Though the beaver-canal is not so popularly known, and is 

 more easily reconciled with instinct, it must not be supposed that 

 it is a minor feature in the performances of this animal ; it is 

 almost incredible that a work so apparently artificial, could have 

 remained unnoticed till iS68, when Mr. Morgan published his 

 valuable notes, so amply illustrating the works of the American 

 Beaver. 



In 1885, was added the testimony of the Marquis of Lome, 

 who, more perhaps than any of our Governors, made himself ac- 

 quainted with our Dominion, and acquired an admiration for the 

 Canadian Beaver. In his beautifully edited volume, "Canadian 

 Pictures, with Pen and Pencil," he devotes several pages to the 

 beaver, and therein records his personal observations of the beaver- 

 canal. He says : 



" In reaches containing islands, I have seen the island cut clean 

 through by a water-ditch, so that the animals and their young, 

 could swim from the pool on one side of the island to that on the 

 other." 



A slightly different form is that in which a waterway is kept 

 open through the beaver meadows, but this is doubtless accounted 

 for by the same faculty for cleaning the roll-waj^s and paths. When 

 the colony has been settled quietly for many years and has cut all 

 the desirable trees close at hand, and further supplies are sometimes 

 hundreds of yards away, the necessity for clear roll-ways and good 

 canals is obvious. 



