BEAVER — MEADOWS. 
385 
nature of the surrounding country, the open spaces now 
joining the beaver ponds — the beaver meadows where the 
trees are scanty or small — -must at one time have been all 
covered with forests. 5 At first the beavers 6 began to clear 
the forest just in the immediate vicinity of the dams, 
extending in every direction, first up the stream as far as 
the nature of the creek would allow, and then laterally by 
means of their canals, as far as the level of the ground 
would allow, thus little by little clearing a larger area 
according to the time they have occupied any particular 
place. 5 In this way beavers may change the whole aspect 
of large tracts of country, covering with water a great 
extent of ground which was once thickly wooded. 
