DWELLINGS. 22; 



ference and some forty metres in height, with great, 

 skill and adaptability ; " no better work could be accom- 

 plished by a most highly-finished steel cutting tool, 

 wielded by a muscular human arm " (Martin). They 

 operate seated on their hind quarters, and they make 

 their incision in the wood with a feather edge. It 

 was once supposed that they always take care so to 

 direct their wood-cutting task that the tree may fall 

 on the water-side, but this is by no means the case, 

 and appears to be simply due, as Martin points out, 

 to the fact that trees by the water-side usually slope 

 towards the water. The austerity of labour alter- 

 nates, it may be added, with the pleasures of the table. 

 From time to time the Beavers remove the bark of the 

 fallen trees, of which they are very fond, and feed on it. 

 Mr. Lewis H. Morgan studied the American Beaver 

 with great care and thoroughness, more especially on 

 the south-west shore of Lake Superior; he devotes 

 fifty pages to the dams, and it is worth while to quote 

 his preliminary remarks regarding them. " The dam 

 is the principal structure of the beaver. It is also the 

 most important of his erections as it is the most 

 extensive, and because its production and preservation 

 could only be accomplished by patient and long-con- 

 tinued labour. In point of time, also, it precedes the 

 lodge, since the floor of the latter and the entrances 

 to its chamber are constructed with reference to the 

 level of the water in the pond. The object of the 

 dam is the formation of an artificial pond, the principal 

 ase of which is the refuge it affords to them when 

 assailed, and the water-connection it gives to their 

 lodges and to their burrows in the banks. Hence, as 

 the level of the pond must, in all cases, rise from one 

 to two feet above these entrances for the protection of 



