ch abounded there, on the
borders of their garments; and in the time of Pliny the Beaver was so
common there that he speaks of it as the Pontic Beaver. Fossil remains
of the Beaver have also been found throughout Europe in conjunction
with those of the Mammoth and other extinct animals.

But the civilisation of the Beaver has perished in the presence of
Man's civilisation, or rather of his persecution. In regions where it
is tracked and disturbed by Man the Beaver lives in couples, and is
content to hollow out a burrow like the Otter's, instead of showing
its consummate art. It merely vegetates, fleeing from enemies who are
too strong for it, and depriving itself of a dangerous comfort. But
when the security of solitude permits these animals to unite in
societies, and to possess, without too much fear, a pond or a stream,
they then exhibit all their industry.

They build very well arranged dwellings, although at first sight they
look like mere piles of twigs, branches, and logs, heaped in disorder
on a small dome of mud. At the edge of a pond each raises his own
lodge, and there is no work by the colony in common. If, however,
there is a question of inhabiting the bank of a shallow stream,
certain preliminary works become necessary. The rodents establish a
dam, so that they may possess a large sheet of water which may be of
fair depth, and above all constant, not at the mercy of the rise and
fall of the stream. A sudden and excessive flood is the one danger
likely to prove fatal to these dykes; but even our own constructions
are threatened under such circumstances.

When the Beavers, tempted by abundance of willows and poplars, of
which they eat the bark and utilise the wood in construction, have
chosen a site, and have decided to establish a village on the edge of
the water, there are several labours to be successively accomplished.
Their first desire is to be in possession of a large number of felled
trunks of trees. To obtain them they scatter themselves in the forest
bordering the stream and attack saplings of from twenty to thirty
centimetres in diameter. They are equipped for this purpose. With
their powerful incisors, worked by strong jaws, they can soon gnaw
through a tree of this size. But they are capable of attacking trees,
even more than 100 cc. in circumference and some forty metres in
height, with great skill and adaptability; "no better work could be
accomplished by a most highly-finished steel cutting