94 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
harvesting. The trees were nearly a hundred yards 
from the edge of the pond on the further side of a 
piece of boggy thicket. So before any wood could 
be brought to the water aroadway had to be made. 
Part of this was really a canal which was cut straight 
through the swamp and from which all obstructions 
were carefully removed. When finished it was 
about three feet in width and a little over a foot 
deep. On shore the path was rather wider, and led 
directly from the end of the canal, to the centre of 
the grove where it forked so that three different 
paths gave access to the field of operations. This 
accomplished, the beaver began felling the trees. 
As each one dropped, and it took but an hour or so 
to bring down a tree six to eight inches in diameter, 
all the branches were neatly cut off close to the 
trunk ; these were carried down the road to the 
canal, the smaller ones being held, butt foremost, 
with the teeth, while the beaver either walked on 
all fours or only on his hind legs with the tail used 
as a balance. Some branches which were extra 
large were dragged along as the animal walked 
backwards until he reached the canal. From that 
point the work of transporting the wood became 
easier and he swam, leading the floating load with 
his teeth. In this way he proceeded through the 
canal then across the pond to the lodge near which 
they had decided to place the wood-pile. Some- 
times, instead of immediately diving and taking the 
cutting to the bottom they would leave it floating 
