318 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



in front of it, and keeps house just as a musquash would. 

 But if he has to live by a stream where there is not water 

 enough to surround his hut, he then goes to work, just as 

 a man would, to make an artificial pond by means of a dam. 



4. In the first place, he and Ids family cut down small 

 trees, and then divide them into shorter lengths, such as 

 they can carry in their mouths. Sometimes the trees are 

 as much as two feet thick. They are really cut, not merely 

 nibbled or hacked. The beaver's front teeth are sharp like 

 chisels, and his work looks as if done with a chisel, in long 

 cuts. It is smoother than a boy's hatchet-cutting is apt to 

 be, and looks at a distance as if done with an axe. Many 

 specimens of these cuttings are now preserved in museums, 

 and they are very curious. 



5. Then the beaver drags these cuttings to the place 

 where he is to build his dam. He brings branches in his 

 mouth, and pushes earth with his paws, and rolls stones 

 along, and sometimes has been seen swimming with hay 

 and brush upon his head — all to be piled together and made 

 into a dam. At first the dam is rough and loose, like the 

 mound of a musquash. But, when once made, it lasts for 

 years and even centuries, and the beavers keep constantly 

 at work on it, smoothing it and pressing it down and stop- 

 ping all the gaps, so that at last it is a solid dam, that will 

 bear the weight of many men. These old dams are neatly 

 finished with earth-work on the upper side and with rough 

 stick-work oir the lower side, and gradually they are over- 

 grown with grass and bushes, and look as if they were 

 natural banks. A millwright in Michigan told me that 

 the beaver-dams were as solid as any that he could build, 

 and that he built his upon just the same plan — filling the 

 stream with boughs, and gradually pressing these down with 

 stones and gravel and logs. 



G. The beavers keep these dams constantly in repair, 

 and may sometimes be seen by night at work on them^ 



