CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



fjld Beaver dams and aspens cut by Beavers a few miles east of 

 Goose Lake, Modoc County, but all the Beavers hadi been caught 

 a few years previously. Dr. Cooper says that Beavers were for- 

 merly common in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, and' I 

 have reasons for believing that they are not exterminated tlieie 

 yet, though rare. 



I can find no records of any "houses" having been seen in 

 Crdifornia and I have seen none west of Colorado. In phccs 

 .^ here dry banks that Beavers can burrow in occur the leavers 

 do not build houses. In fact all houses that I ever saw .vere 

 pi. iced in ponds made by damming streams so as to get sn'll wa- 

 ter to build in, and these localities were either too rocky to bur- 

 rr. ,v in easily or suitable dry banks were not aY^'ilable. Dams 

 are not often built in streams that do not freeze over, the princi- 

 pal use cf the dam being to provide deep water to store logs and 

 bvuuches in for a food supply when the streams are frozen over 

 and it is not practicable to cut wood and float it to where they 

 wish to eat the bark and twigs. In most parts of Califorina the 

 presence of pjcavers is only made known by tr.c stumps of the 

 trees and ?aplinc;s that they have cut. 



Tl"e use of the tail as a trowel or barge is but another of 

 these "fairy t.i'c?" that unfortunately creep into natural history 

 acci..ur,tb. The use of the tail in water is in (!i\'ing and 1c some 

 extent as a nv.ldir. When on land it is usid :is a prop wb.en 1ne 

 animal wishes to sit up and gnaw the bark from a stick held in 

 the fore paws, or to cut down a tree. Swimming is done with 

 hind feet, the fore feet being mostly held folded back under the 

 breast. When swimming on the surface, if frightened or suspic- 

 ious, it is not unusual for the Beaver to strike the surface of the 

 water with the flat tail, making a sharp report, that heard near 

 one on a still night is startling enough, as I know from exper- 

 ience. Beavers have been credited with great intelligence, but the 

 facts do not indicate an uncommon account of reasoning pciwer ; 

 many other rodents are nearly or cjuite as cunning. 



