BEAVER — CANALS. 
379 
concede to him, and yet it is proper to mention the relation in 
which these dams stand to each other — whether that relation 
is regarded as accidental or intentional., 
As before, we have here to commend the cantion dis- 
played by the closing sentence ; but, as useless dams are 
not found in other places, the inference clearly is that the 
dam in question, both as regards its exceptional position 
and exceptional height, can only be explained by suppos- 
ing the structure to have been designed for the use which 
it unquestionably served. That is to say, if we do not 
entertain this explanation, there is no other to be sug- 
gested ; and although in any ordinary or occasional in- 
stance of the display of animal intelligence in such a degree 
as this I should not hesitate to attribute the facts to acci- 
dent, in the case of the beaver there are such a multitude 
of constantly recurring facts, all and only referable to 
a practical though not less extraordinary appreciation of 
hydrostatic principles, that the hypothesis of accident 
must here, I think, be laid aside. To substantiate this 
statement I shall detail the facts concerning the beaver- 
canals. 
As Mr. Morgan, who first discovered and described 
these astonishing structures, observes, — 
Remarkable as the dam may still be considered, from its 
structure and objects, it scarcely surpasses, if it may be said to 
equal, these water-ways, here called canals, which are excavated 
through the low lands bordering their ponds for the purpose of 
reaching the hard wood, and for affording a channel for its 
transportation to their lodges. To conceive and execute such 
a design presupposes a more complicated and extended process 
of reasoning than that required for the construction of a dam, 
and, although a much simpler work to perform when the 
thought was fully developed, it was far less to have been 
expected from a mute animah 
These canals are developed in this way. One of the 
principal objects served by a dam thrown across a small 
stream, is that of flooding the low ground so as to obtain 
water connection with the first high ground upon which 
hard wood is to be found, such connection being conve- 
nient, or even necessary, for the purposes of transport* 
