Adirondack Beaver 125 



rule I have found the beaver more extravagant and destructive when 

 he is working in a locality of large trees, than where small growths 

 of the same kind of trees occur, because when a sapling up to three 

 or four inches in diameter is felled, the bark not only of the branches 

 but also of the entire trunk is utilized for food, while in the case of 

 larger trees, eight to ten inches in diameter and above, usually only 

 the limbs are selected ; and often most or even all of these are left 

 untouched. 



During this investigation in the Adirondacks the amount and kinds 

 of cuttings were found to vary considerably with the locality. When 

 aspens, or poplars, as they are locally called, occurred in fair abund- 

 ance among other kinds they of course were the principal trees cut. 

 Next in order came the birches, and in many localities these were 

 the most common cuttings, not from choice but because of scarcity 

 or absence of the more favored aspen. The largest beaver-cut trees 

 found were birches and aspens measuring from 12 inches to 17 

 inches in diameter at the lower end of the cut. Young beeches were 

 occasionally found cut, and many small maple saplings ; also, in 

 burned-over districts, many small wild cherry trees and a considerable 

 number of larger ones, three to six inches in diameter. Other kinds 

 of trees or shrubbery cut by beaver were alders, willows, raspberry, 

 ash, spruce, hemlock, balsam fir and pine. The spruce, balsam fir and 

 pine were all of small size, an inch or two in diameter, and were 

 merely such occasional cuttings of conifers as one usually finds in 

 beaver haunts. One hemlock a foot in diameter was cut about two- 

 thirds through, and a little one near it had been completely severed. 

 Trees of various kinds were frequently seen which had been merely 

 girdled and then permanently abandoned. 



Damage through Flooding of Timbered Areas. No attempt 

 was made by me to estimate the number of acres of timber of any 

 sort flooded in the various localities. Such estimates have however, 

 been published (Pratt '20, p. 50). Many beaver flows contain no 

 merchantable timber, while others contain patches of it here and 

 there. The actual acreage is in the very nature of the conditions 

 difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy without detailed 

 surveys. 



To give a detailed account of all or even most of the many locali- 

 ties where timber of one kind or another, and in very variable 

 amounts was found damaged or killed in beaver flows, appears 

 neither necessarv nor desirable at this time. In order, however, to 



