50 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



the stream. There is one instance of this latter fact 

 which is very difficult to explain. A tree of about a 

 foot in diameter grew close to the base of one of the 

 dams, leaning at a considerable angle over the dam, 

 and this, for some reason best known to themselves, 

 they had left standing long after they had cut down 

 trees at a considerable distance from the stream ; 

 but last spring they started to cut it down, and 

 down it came — not, as it would be supposed, in the 

 direction in which it leaned (which would have 

 brought it right across the dam), but backwards 

 from the water, and nearly exactly in a contrary 

 direction from that in which it grew. How this was 

 done I do not pretend to say, nor why, for it was not 

 of the description of tree on which they feed (mostly 

 Scotch fir) ; but there it lay, having been down 

 some months, with all its ba,rk on and the branches 

 not lopped off, clear of j;he dam and stream. 



"The mode of felling trees is very interesting; 

 their teeth cut as clean and sharp as a chisel, and 

 the modus operandi (as seen by the keeper in his 

 moonlight watches) is, a cut above and a cut below, 

 a wrench, and out comes the chip. They appear 

 never to work more than one at a time at each tree — 

 i.e., so far as the cutting down is concerned — and to 

 relieve one another at regular intervals, all work 

 being done at night or in the very early morning. 

 Two or more will join together to drag or roll a log to 

 the water which is too heavy for one to manage, and 

 the bark is always stripped off and stored under 

 water for winter consumption, before the branches 



