— Ii9— 
tory of this remarkable animal only on the basis of 
reliable reports. 
The beaver (Castor Fiber) is about two feet long, 
has a thick heavy body, compressed head with short 
elliptical ears, and somewhat oval, but rather broad 
tail, about ten inches long and covered with scales. 
The whole body is covered with a dense fur, consist- 
ing of longer reddish brown and shorter silvery hair. 
The skill of these animals in constructing their dwell- 
ings is well known. They prefer living on brooks and 
streamlets whose shores are overgrown with willows. 
In order to have deep water continually, they build a 
dam through the water, sometimes diagonally, some- 
times in a convex bow. At this dam all the colony 
of beavers living together work jointly. Their only 
tools for this building are their teeth, their claws and 
their tail. In the water thus dammed up, each beaver 
family builds for itself out of the same material little 
square dwellings. In addition to these dwellings the 
beavers usually have side caverns in the bank of the 
stream (caches), where they retire when their dwell- 
ings are destroyed. When the state of the water 
makes it unnecessary, or when they are often dis- 
turbed, they build neither dam nor dwellings, but 
content themselves with these side caverns. Their 
dwellings, which they frequently repair, become in 
time so firm that they can only be broken with tools. 
The greater part of these dwellings is under water; 
but there is under the roof a space without water, as 
the beavers cannot remain long under water without 
Beginning 
the Return 
Journey— 
The Beaver 
