RESULTS OF BEAVERS’ WORK 165 
slide, and wondered whether he would venture 
near. Slowly he swam towards me, stopping 
repeatedly to investigate. What it was that gave 
him confidence I could not tell, but suddenly he 
apparently made up his mind that there was no 
occasion for fear and he moved quickly, landing 
within three feet of where 1 stood. Once on shore 
he again doubted the wisdom of his course and 
hesitated, not quite liking to pass so near a human 
being ; sitting half way up on his hind legs and 
tail with his small fore paws held close beneath his 
chin he carefully watched me, his nose moving 
slowly as though trying to scent an enemy. A 
few minutes sufficed for this, and then we had 
established a degree of mutual confidence at once 
satisfactory and useful, for I hoped on the following 
day to take a few photos of my new friend, and it 
is highly desirable that we should be on a footing 
of trust with our model. It was rapidly becoming 
dark, too dark, indeed, for me to distinguish much 
more than the general form of the beaver. So 
I left him to his thoughts, intending to visit him 
again the following afternoon. 
That the reader may understand something of 
the position of this poor old hermit a few words 
of explanation are needed. When the beavers 
were first brought to the Zoo they were given for 
their new home a small enclosure of perhaps 
two acres. Through this ran a very small stream, 
the banks of which were fairly well wooded. It 
