THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 59 
during the night they can scarcely be expected to 
see clearly the tree-tops which are perhaps forty or 
fifty feet above them. How often does man make 
exactly the same mistake? Yet he works in broad 
daylight and has far better eyesight. When a tree 
becomes lodged, the beavers’. method of solving the 
difficulty is usually quite different from our own. 
We seldom cut through the same tree a second 
time, but choose rather to cut away the obstructing 
tree. The beaver, on the contrary, nearly always 
confines his efforts to bringing down the tree he 
wants by repeated cutting. Only very rarely do 
they adopt the man’s method. In cases where a 
tree falls so that it comes nearly to the ground 
either through being entangled in another tree or 
held up by its own branches resting on the ground, 
the beaver make their way along the inclined trunk 
and cut off the supporting branches or, if not too 
thick, the top of the tree, so that it shall fall to 
earth and be more easily manipulated. The great 
weight of the beavers’ body and the formation of 
their feet prevent their climbing a vertical trunk, 
but when it inclines to an angle of even forty 
degrees they manage to walk along the rough bark 
without difficulty. Often have I found branches 
cut off which were eight or ten feet from the ground, 
but seldom at any greater height. 
The size of trees which beaver will cut is almost, 
incredible. The largest I have seen was twenty- 
two inches in diameter where the cut was made, 
