RESULTS OF BEAVERS’ WORK 141 
making a fight against the dastardly destruction of 
these innocents for purposes of personal adornments 
and other equally useless objects. But the beaver 
is almost without any champion. He even has 
enemies who demand that he shall be killed 
for the harm he does to their particular interests. 
They do not stop to consider how they benefit 
by the results of the little animals’ work which 
far more than counter-balances any slight harm 
they do. 
In this chapter I shall endeavour to show what 
the beavers’ work means. The question of the 
value of the animals themselves as fur bearers, and 
the results to the country from their pursuit, will 
come in a later chapter. We have seen that 
through making dams the beaver floods tracts of 
land which vary in size from less than an acre up to 
hundreds of acres, perhaps we might even say 
thousands. So long as these ponds or Jakes are 
inhabited by the animals the dams are kept in 
repair, but gradually, as the size of the colony 
increases, the supply of food trees becomes more 
and more remote and the place eventually is un- 
suited to their needs, so the beaver move away and 
seek new pastures. In the natural course of events 
the dam, no longer kept in repair, soon begins to 
break down. Willows and alders take root and 
open up seams through which the water escapes. 
Running water soon enlarges any holes in earth 
works, and so within a short time the dams no 
