NOTES OF A FUR HUNTER. 661 
larger than one and a half inches, or two inches at far- 
thest, the beaver cuts off the top, and drags it and the 
stems to his house separately. I have seen the wood as 
large as five inches, and three or four feet long. Have 
seen a white birch felled by them four inches in diame- 
_ ter. In the winter they come up under the ice and gnaw 
their bark there. Gradually in such places air collects 
under the ice, which is, I think, what they breathe out 
when they are there. I have seen one stay under water 
seven and one-half minutes by the watch, and have heard 
from a reliable man of their staying twelve to fourteen 
minutes. The Otter will kill young Beavers. I don’t 
know of anything else that destroys them except man. 
Their meat is excellent, and the meat from their tail is a 
delicacy. 
The Dam.—I will describe one dam. It was lately 
built. It was six rods long; not straight across the 
stream, but the middle was further down stream than 
each end. The groundwork was of small alders, cherry 
trees, and bushes. Nearer the top, trees from one to one 
and a half inches in diameter were placed on, the butt 
being hauled over so as to rest on the bottom of the stream 
below, and the top woven into the dam. On the up- 
stream side it was covered with moss, mud, gravel, and 
rocks, and some of the rocks I judge would weigh fifteen 
to twenty pounds. The water dripped over the dam 
evenly the whole length. The dam flowed the pond 
above, which was a mile long. It was not at a narrow 
place in the brook. It had been built the summer before, 
and in the fall while I was there, I caught six beavers 
there, and think I caught them all. There were seven 
houses in the neighborhood, but only one of them was 
new. I drove them from this to one of the old ones, and 
