56 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
bite of its bark and ate with an expressionless 
face. Evidently it was good, for after eating 
the old fellow scratched a large pile of trash 
against the base of the tree, and from this plat- 
form gnawed the tree off above the swollen 
base. While he was gnawing a splinter of wood 
wedged between his upper front teeth. This 
was picked out by catching it with the double 
nails of the second toe on the right hind foot. 
This aspen was ten inches in diameter at the 
point cut off. The diameter of trees cut is 
usually from three to six inches. The largest 
beaver cutting that I have measured was a cot- 
tonwood with a diameter of forty-two inches. 
On large, old trees the rough bark is not eaten, 
but from the average tree which is felled for food 
all of the bark and a small per cent of the wood 
is eaten. Rarely will a beaver cut dead wood, 
and only in emergencies will he cut a pine or a 
spruce. Apparently the pitch is distasteful to 
him. 
One day another beaver cut a number of 
small aspens and dragged these, one or two 
at a time, to the pond. After a dozen or more 
were collected, all were pushed off into the water. 
Against this small raft the beaver placed his 
forepaws and swimming pushed it to the food- 
pile near the centre of the old pond. 
At the close of harvest the beavers in Broken 
