ning in case an enemy approaches. While
cutting down trees they stand or sit in an upright position upon their
hind legs and are firmly supported by the tripod formed by the
spreading out of their hind feet and tail. They generally choose trees
nearest the water on an inclined bank, and usually leaning toward the
stream; and while they show no particular skill in felling trees in a
certain position, they do display great perseverance, for if it
happens, as it sometimes does, that a tree in its descent is checked
and eventually held up by its neighbours, the beavers will cut the
trunk for the second time, and in some cases even for the third time,
in order to bring it down.

At night I have frequently sat by the hour at a time, with the
brush-screened bow of my canoe within ten feet of a party of beavers,
while they were busily engaged in cutting the branches off a tree that
they had felled into the water the previous evening. They work
quickly, too, for some mornings I have paddled past a big tree lying in
the water, which they had dropped the night before and--on returning
next day--have found all the branches removed, though some of them
would have measured five inches in diameter. But watching beavers work
at night is not only interesting, it is easy to do, and I have
frequently taken both women and children to share in the sport.
Sometimes, right in the heart of the wilderness, I have placed children
within fifteen feet of beavers while they were engaged in cutting up a
tree.

When branches measure from one to three inches in diameter they are
usually cut in lengths of from five to ten feet, and the thicker the
branch the shorter they cut the lengths. If the cutting is done on
land, the butt of the long thinner length is seized by the beaver's
teeth and with the weight resting upon the animal's back, is dragged
along the ground--over a specially cleared road--and eventually
deposited in the water. The shorter lengths, sometimes no longer than
a couple of feet, but measuring perhaps six or eight inches in
diameter, are rolled along the ground by the beaver pushing the log
with the forefeet or shoulder. When the wood is placed in the water,
the beaver propels it to its under-water storage place near its lodge,
where--the wood being green and heavy--it is easily secured from
floating up and away, by placing a little mud over one end or by
interlocking the stick with the rest of the pile. The green wood,
howe