CHAPTER III 



RESULTS OF BEAVERS' WORK IN WHAT WAY 



MAN DERIVES BENEFIT FROM THE ENGINEER- 

 ING FEATS OF THE COUNTLESS GENERATIONS 

 OF BEAVERS METHODS FOR THEIR PROTECTION 



IN the foregoing chapters the actual work done 

 by the beaver and the immediate object of such 

 work as it affects the animals themselves has been 

 reviewed. We may now turn to the far-reaching 

 results of what is done, and has been done by them 

 during the past thousands of years, and the con- 

 clusion is forced upon us that the debt we owe to 

 the beaver is of such magnitude that it can never 

 be repaid. It is very doubtful indeed whether the 

 work of any animal has such far-reaching results. 

 Other creatures have been of greater value, either 

 as furnishing food, or clothing, or means of trans- 

 portation, but by themselves, unaided by man, they 

 have done no work, they have accomplished little 

 or nothing which has been of any direct benefit to 

 man except in the way of killing our enemies, in 

 which work birds take the highest place, for without 

 their perpetual aid we should be overrun by insect 

 pests, and be unable to grow our food crops. 

 Slowly we are beginning to realise this and are 



