GILPIN ON THE CONSTEUCTION OF A BEAVER DAM. 153 



over rocky portages of the same. It had lost Its porphyritic 

 character, resembling the Shelburne granite of the sea coast, except 

 here and there an erratic of the red or Egyptian variety — which lay 

 fastly disintegrating and poised on the summits of the white. 



That the country still rose south of us for ten miles, and was 

 still granitic ; and that on either hand we were bounded about 

 twelve miles to the right by the Silurian slates through which 

 the Sissiboo pours the most beautiful fall in Nova Scotia ; and 

 about the same distance to the left by the Bear River hills, also 

 Silurianis ; — all we can vouch for, leaving it for the future Geologi- 

 cal lieport to confirm if the granite is continuous with that on the 

 sea coast, or if it disappears beneath the slates of Fairy Lake and 

 the great Rossignol. 



Soon after leaving camp on the 19th, James Meuse, our Indian 

 hunter, pointed out to us a beaver dam. The stream flowing 

 gently out of a long still water was narrowed to about twelve yards 

 by granite boulders on either side, one or two of which projected 

 out of the middle. Here was the spot they had chosen, their object 

 beino^ to raise the water of the still water about ei":hteen inches. 

 They had first dammed the stream to a rock about ten feet from the 

 shore, then thrown the dam to a second rock lying up stream, and 

 from thence carried it to the opposite side. It resembled a brush 

 water fence, the water falling about eighteen inches, and pouring 

 over and through white bleached sticks and twigs of trees lying in 

 the water, with their butts up stream, otherwise laced and interlac- 

 ed in endless confusion. It was of a horse-shoe form, its convex 

 side lying up stream. 



From observations as far as the height of the stream would 

 allow, and from the remarks of James Meuse, a very intelligent 

 Indian, I could only conclude that the beavers formed their dams by 

 first choosing a narrow part of the stream studded by rocks, and 

 then felling down trees up stream, which they floated down with 

 their butts up stream until they grounded in the narrows. Thus 

 soon a number of trees would be lying parallel, butts up stream, 

 and branches down, and interlaced in endless confusion. The 

 beaver then gnawed the butts oflp, and floated them athwart or cross- 

 ways the branches. In this he is assisted by the rocks in the bed 



