HISTORY OF THE ADIRONDACK BEAVER. 413 



session of the houses, they commenced tearing up the straw and thrusting 

 it into the pond, through the round door in the center of the floor; and soon 

 had it all out of their houses. 



Air. Ball was greatly surprised at this performance, especially as there 

 was no grass or leaves which the beavers could obtain to substitute for the 

 straw; but a few days later, on raising the roof, to investigate, he found the 

 floor and shelves strewn with a clean white substance closely resembling 

 new excelsior or coarse straw. Upon examination, it was found to be 

 very thin strips of wood — all eighteen inches in length, showing that they 

 had been produced from the solid blocks. After being stripped of their 

 bark, they had been reduced to very fine shavings by the aid of their won- 

 derful teeth. This, then, was the material of which the beavers' beds were 

 made. It was a valuable discovery- I have never seen this curious fact 

 referred to in any printed work, save in Martin's Castorologia* in which 

 he quotes from the report of Joseph Stuart Black, gamekeeper of the Mar- 

 quis of Bute, relative to the latter's experiment of raising Canadian beavers 

 on a large, semi-wild area in Scotland. Mr. Black says: "As to what they 

 use for a bed to lie on, it is wood shavings, which they prepare in the fol- 

 lowing manner: after using the bark for food, they place the stick on end, 

 holding it with both feet a bit apart, then with their teeth pare it down 

 into fine shavings. They are very cleanly in their habits, as they often 

 clean out their house, not casting away the refuse, but using it either on 

 the top of the house or the embankment of the dam to patch up a hole." 



It is strange that so accurate and persevering an observer as Morgan 

 did not discover their use of wood shavings as a bed. He states that he 

 found grass used for this purpose in the houses which he opened when taking 

 their measurements. Apparently, the} 7 use both grass and wood shavings, 

 and perhaps grass is their favorite material. This they were unable to obtain 

 at the Old Forge quarters. I tied together a little bundle of these wood 

 shavings and took it away as a curiosity. It has a striking resemblance to 

 a bundle of ordinary cane straw, coarse excelsior, or slivers and splints of 

 elm wood such as are used in basket work, etc. 



Toward the end of April, 1905, having heard that the ice was leaving 



* Page 161. 



