54 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 



same materials. If any damage does occur, they im- 

 mediately find it out and repair it. I have seen them 

 swim along the edge of the embankment, carefully 

 examining it to ascertain the part most needful of re- 

 pairs, then go to work with a will to rectify it. The 

 dam is now seventy-eight yards long of still water. 



" Besides the dam already mentioned, upon which 

 they bestow great care in -its construction, owing to 

 the house being built in it, they have other seven, 

 some larger, some smaller ; one of them having an 

 embankment 105 feet long, and an average depth 

 of three feet. These serve as places of refuge if the 

 beavers are disturbed when out roaming about in quest 

 of food or felling the trees, also as a waterway for con- 

 veying their food by when storing it for winter. 



In the construction of their dwelling the same 

 kind of materials are used. As to how they built it : 

 you must understand that for a considerable distance 

 along one side of the stream, or burn, the ground 

 rises in a steep bank, but about twenty yards above 

 where they began to build the embankment for the 

 dam there was a small level spot which they selected. 

 Then at the bottom of the water they burrowed in 

 three or four feet, rose up eight or ten inches, 

 scooped out a space large enough to hold themselves, 

 broke a hole in the surface about six inches in 

 diameter, then began to cover it over with sticks, 

 grass, and a few stones, always keeping it open in 

 the centre by placing a few sticks perpendicularly, 

 so as to act as a ventilator, and as the water rose in 

 the dam and the family increased, they continued to 



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