THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 29 
have yet much to learn about beaver, and many 
of our ideas as to the why and wherefore of what 
they do are based on surmise, which is the result 
of our very insignificant knowledge. 
The situations chosen for the lodges vary entirely 
with conditions. In some parts of the country 
the beaver appear to realise the advantage of 
placing their lodges on the north or north-western 
side of lakes and streams. By doing this they gain 
the heat of the sun, which melts the ice away from 
both bank and lodge and so liberates the animals 
at the earliest possible date. This I have observed 
particularly in Newfoundland, where most of the 
lodges seen during a period of several years were 
thus situated with apparently no other object in 
view. 
Concealment seems very frequently to be care- 
fully considered, in which cases the lodge is hidden 
in dense alder thickets or among closely-growing 
tamarack or spruce. So effectual is the conceal- 
ment afforded by the scrubby growth that, were 
it not for the dams or the peeled wood which is 
found floating near the shore, their existence 
would be unknown even by those whose eyes are 
trained to see clearly. As an instance of this, I 
remember going to see a place where for months 
some beaver had with untiring persistence built 
a dam in a railway culvert. Once or twice each 
week during their activities the section men visited 
the culvert and pulled out all the accumulation of 
