Feb. lo, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



1-3 1 



BEAVERS AS DAM-BUILDERS. 

 The following notes from an old trapper appear in the 

 Toronto Globe. He thinks the constructive ability of 



selves. To those who are well acquainted with their 

 nature this seems the more surprising, since they are 

 not, as popularly represented, the most intelligent of 

 animals, but, on the contrary, they possess less general 

 intelligence than most brutes. If a river has a tributary 

 running into it, and if below the junction, high banks 



beavers less wonderful than their skill in choosing the 

 best places for the erection of their dams. These dams 

 are the first requisite of a beaver colony, and serve 

 like a miller's weir for keeping a certain portion of a 

 river always full of water up to a standard depth. No 

 engineer thoroughly versed in their needs and habits 

 could lay out a more suitable place than they do them- 



come within a moderate distance of each other, the 

 beavers are sure to dam up such a place. If the high 

 lands widen out looking up-stream, and the valley is 

 level, so as to form long wide flats up both streams, the 

 dam will generally be large, since next to a lake this is 

 their favourite locality. 



In dam-building their skill would put to shame masny 



