72 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
Another common example of their intelligence 
is shown by the way in which they will add water 
to a brook whose supply seems inadequate to their 
needs. They will turn other streams into the one 
which is failing them, by digging ditches to carry 
the water, by even diverting an entire stream towards 
their own, and by tapping springs by means of 
small ditches. Their comprehension of the entire 
problem of water supply and control is so altogether 
wonderful as to be almost incredible, and even so 
some people claim that they do not reason. 
Numberless incidents of a more or less similar 
nature could be told to prove that by the means 
employed in doing the work the beaver reasons 
with the utmost clearness, while the results of their 
work justify us in believing that they thoroughly 
appreciate what are, or should be, the ends. 
Nothing proves this better than the building of the 
canals to which reference has already been made. 
These artificial waterways are apparently con- 
structed with but one end in view: the simplifying 
of transporting cuttings of wood. Carrying and 
pushing logs and branches on land, whether through 
the tree-strewn and moss-covered forests, or over 
the hummocky grass lands, is a difficult and tedious 
task to be avoided whenever possible. But as the 
trees which are growing near the pond, whether 
natural or the result of beaver work, are cut down, 
the supply naturally recedes further and further 
with each season. To counteract this the beaver 
