412 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



bark, which they consumed; then discarded the stick. These peeled sticks 

 were collected together in a pile by Mr. Ball. There were four or five cords 

 of this material remaining at the commencement of the spring, which were 

 to be sold by the guides for stove-wood, at two dollars per cord, to help pay 

 the expenses of the beavers' keep. Gradually the amount of vegetables 

 fed to the beavers was diminished, so that just before liberation they were 

 subsisting almost exclusively on bark and brush. Mr. Ball found that the 

 beavers would also readily eat bread, but was obliged to keep his discovery 

 to himself, otherwise the children of the neighborhood would have been 

 throwing bread into the pond at all hours of the day, in the hope of draw- 

 ing the beavers from their houses, that they might get sight of them. 



The beaver has a peculiar call, which it utters in a low tone, and Mr. 

 Ball soon learned to imitate this so well that he always used it at feeding 

 time to call the beavers out of their houses. 



On the day of their arrival at the pond, after a week or two of con- 

 finement, without water, in Mr. Moore's cellar, the beavers were so 

 delighted with the little pond that they commenced damming it up immedi- 

 ately with such loose wood, brush, leaves, etc., as had fallen into it. This 

 dam had to be demolished to prevent the water in the pond rising too high ; 

 and, seeing their labor unavailing, they spent the remainder of the day in 

 splashing about in the water and washing and combing their faces and 

 bodies. 



Their method of eating apples was quite dainty. Sitting erect upon 

 their hind legs, with their tails extended backwards upon the ground, they 

 would hold them in their forepaws, and remove the skin with as much neat- 

 ness and dexterity as the genus Homo might command with the aid of a 

 fruitknife. I saw one of the beavers peel an apple in this way; and Mr_ 

 Ball said that they invariably did it so. 



TI)e Reavers' §eds 



I have previously referred to the fact that the houses of the beavers, 

 built by Messrs. Ball and Davidson over the pond, were supplied with warm 

 beds of soft straw, deeply strewn. This was a consideration, however, 

 which was wasted upon the beavers, for, almost as soon as they took pos- 



