22 HARDY ON THE BEAVEE EST NOVA SCOTIA. 



the time of year when we inspected these works, the beaver 

 were beginning to repair damages both to houses and dams. 

 The house is approached from the water by long trenches, 

 hollowed out to a considerable depth in the bottom of the lake 

 or brook. In these are piled their winter stock of food, short 

 lengths of willow and poplar, which if left sticking in the mud 

 at the ordinary level of the bottom below the surface, would 

 become impacted in the ice. The beaver travels a long distance 

 from his house in search of materials, both for building and 

 food. I saw the stumps of small trees, which had been felled 

 at least three-quarters of a mile from the house. Their towing 

 power in the waters, and that of dragging on dry land is aston- 

 ishing. The following is rather a good story of their coolness 

 and enterprise told me by a friend, who was a witness to the fact. 

 It occurred at a little lake near the head waters of Roseway 

 river. Having constructed a raft for the purpose of poling 

 round the edge of the lake, to get at the houses of the beaver, 

 which were built in a swampy savannah otherwise inaccessible, 

 it had been left in the evening moored at the edge of the lake 

 nearest the camps, and about a quarter of a mile from the 

 nearest beaver house, the poles lying on it. Next morning, on 

 going down to the raft the poles were missing, so, cutting fresh 

 ones, he started with the Indians towards the houses. There 

 to his astonishment was one of the poles, coolly deposited on 

 the top of a house.* 



The work of Ijuilding or repairing houses and dams is 

 invariably carried on during the night. The following is the 

 modus operandi : — Repairing to the thickets and groves skirting 

 the lake, the beaver, squatting on his hams, rapidly gnaws 

 through the stems of trees of six or even twelve inches 

 diameter, with its powerful incisors. These are again divided, 

 and dragged away to the house or dam. The beaver now 



*The food of the beaver consists of the bark of several varieties of willow, of poplar, 

 and l)irch ; they also feed constantly durino; summer on the roots and tcndi'ils of the 

 yellow pond lily, nuphar luteum. They feed in the evening and throughout the night. 

 For winter supplies tlie saplings of the above mentioned trees are cut into lengths two 

 and three feet, and planted in the mud outside the house. Lengths are brought in and 

 the bark devoured in the hall, never on the coucli, and when peeled, the sticks are 

 towed outside and used in the spring to repair the honse. 



