ers, and, no doubt, was copied all over the
United States.

But though the black bear is a shy, playful brute, usually ready for
flight if danger approaches, the tyro should remember that if wounded
or cornered he will readily fight. Furthermore, if one is unlucky
enough to get between a bear cub and its mother, and if the cub should
cry out as though you were giving it pain, the mother will attack you
as readily as any mother would--be she chicken, moose, or woman.

THE WAYS OF THE BEAVER

A few days later Oo-koo-hoo and Amik set out to hunt beavers--those
wonderful amphibious animals of the Northland that display more
intelligence, perseverance, prudence, and morality than many a highly
civilized human being.

In appearance the beaver somewhat resembles a greatly magnified
muskrat, save that the beaver's hairless, scaly tail is very broad and
flat. The coat of the beaver is brown, and the darker the colour the
higher the price it brings. An adult beaver may measure from
thirty-five to forty-five inches in length, and weigh anywhere from
thirty to sixty pounds. The beaver's home is usually in the form of an
island house, built in the waters of a small lake or slowly running
stream, to afford protection from prowling enemies, much in the same
way that the old feudal lords surrounded the ramparts of their castles
with broad moats and flooded the intervening space with a deep canal of
water, in order to check the advance of enemy raiders. The surrounding
shores of the beaver's castle are nearly always wooded with poplars, as
it is upon the bark of that tree that the beaver depends most for his
food; though at times, other hardwoods contribute to his feast as well
as water-lily roots and other vegetation.

The beaver's island-like lodge is a dome-shaped structure that rises
from four to seven feet above the water, and measures from ten to
thirty feet in diameter on the water-line. It is composed mostly of
barkless sticks and poles from one to four inches in diameter, although
at times much heavier material is used; and it is tightly chinked with
stones and mud and matted vegetation. Frequently, I have watched the
building of their lodges. A foundation of water-logged poles and
sticks is laid upon the lake or river bottom, next mud and stones are
added, then another lot of branches, thus the structure rises in a
fairly solid mound until its dome-like top reaches the desired height
above the water-line. Then