154 GILPIN ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BEAVER DAM. 



of the stream. An obstruction now being made to the water he 

 fills in the interstices with mud, with stones, and especially dried 

 grasses, which abounded on the margins of the stream, hay, as every 

 practical man knows, being a capital substance for stopping a water 

 breach. This structure was evidently of a late formation, and 

 small in comparison with those we read of in the north-west terri- 

 tories. It probably held a community often or twelve. 



It is idle to describe the sylvan beauty of this scene : the sweet 

 music of the water trilling through its milk-white and endlessly 

 interwoven barriers, — the deep green of the waving grasses, — 

 above dam, the still water losing itself in a reach, or in the reflections 

 of the dark overhanging pines, — the perfect water carpet of lily pads, 

 and the solitude steeping this scene dedicated to instinct labor. Our 

 canoe was floating above dam, its graceful bow held lightly in the 

 interlacing twigs, and a few sweeps of the paddle carried us across 

 the still water, some five hundred yards to where the owners of those 

 mill privileges had built their homes. Standing in and out the 

 water, there literally carpeted by lily pads, and embayed by the 

 thick water grasses, and cranberry bushes, were two domes. A 

 twist of the paddle and we grounded on its white and withered 

 thatch, the beavers escaping under the water. 



On the sloping side, down stream, of a granite boulder, lay a 

 confused heap of white and peeled sticks crossed and re-crossed in 

 every direction, forming an irregular thatch. A little clay and 

 moss showed here and there between the interstices. The whole 

 mass made a very flat irregular dome resting on the side of the 

 rock, with two horns as it were running into the water and conceal- 

 ing the water galleries, by which the beaver had access to the in- 

 terior. The long diameter was about twelve feet, the short six 

 feet, and the height above water about three feet. The entire mass 

 resembled a cart load of white peeled sticks thrown down against 

 a rock. The same instinct that had taught them to make the dam, 

 convex side up stream, had here as I said before, taught them to 

 place the dome against the down-stream side of the rock. In both 

 cases to preserve them from the pressure of ice. 



We had the grace to spare an inhabited house, but meeting a 

 deserted one, which wonderfully resembled an old barn with its 



