352 AMERICAN BEAVER. 



already spoken of, through which they go in and out and bring their food. 

 The beds of these singular animals are separated slightly from each 

 other, and are placed around the wall, or circumference of the interior of 

 the lodge ; they are formed merely of a few grasses, or the tender bark 

 of trees : the space in the centre of the lodge being left unoccupied. The 

 Beavers usually go to the dam every evening to see if repairs are needed, 

 and to deposit their ordure in the water near the dam, or at least at some 

 distance from their lodge. 



They rarely travel by land, unless their dams have been carried away 

 by the ice, and even then they take the beds of the rivers or streams for 

 their roadway. In cutting down trees they are not always so fortunate 

 as to have them fall into the water, or even towards it, as the trunks of 

 trees cut down by these animals are observed lying in various positions ; 

 although as most trees on the margin of a stream or river lean somewhat 

 towards the water, or have their largest branches extended over it, many 

 of those cut down by the Beavers naturally fall in that direction. 



It is a curious fact, saj's our trapper, that among the Beavers there are 

 some that are lazy and will not work at all, either to assist in building 

 lodges or dams, or to cut down ■wood for their winter stock. The 

 industrious ones beat these idle fellows, and drive them away ; some- 

 times cutting off a part of their tail, and otherwise injuring them. These 

 " Paresseux" are more easily caught in traps than the others, and the trap- 

 per rarely misses one of them. They only dig a hole from the water run- 

 ning obliquely towards the surface of the ground twenty-five or thirty feet, 

 from which they emerge when hungry, to obtain food, returning to the 

 same hole with the wood they procure, to eat the bark. 



They never form dams, and are sometimes to the number of five or 

 seven together ; all are males. It is not at all improbable, that these 

 unfortunate fellows have, as is the case with the males of many species 

 of animals, been engaged in fighting M'ith others of their sex, and 

 after having been conquered and driven away from the lodge, have 

 become idlers from a kind of necessity. The working Beavers, on the 

 contrary, associate, males, females, and young together. 



Beavers are caught, and found in good order at all seasons of the year 

 in the Rocky JNIountains ; for in those regions the atmosphere is never 

 warm enough to injure the fur ; in the low-lands, however, the trappers 

 rarely begin to capture them before the first of September, and they relin- 

 quish the pursuit about the last of May. This is understood to be along 

 the Missouri, and the (so called) Spanish country. 



Cartwright, (vol. i., p. 62,) found a Beaver that weighed forty-five 

 pounds ; and we were assured that they have been caught weighing 



