under water, but the male beaver evidently
feared I would, and just as he dived he smartly slapped the water with
his tail to give the danger signal to the lady who was placidly nosing
about and grubbing for the roots of water-plants at the other side of
the pond.

"Walking one day through thick wood," says Grenfell, "we came across a
regular 'pathway,' the trees having been felled to make traveling
easy. A glance at the stumps showed that it was a road cut by beavers,
to enable them to drag their boughs of birch along more easily.

"The pathway led to a large house on the edge of a lake, and,
fortunately for us, the beaver was at home. There were other houses on
an island in the lake, and below them all a large, strong dam, some
thirty yards long, and below this two more complete dams across the
river that flowed out. The dams were made of large tree-trunks, with
quantities of lesser boughs, and were many feet thick, and very
difficult to break down. The houses were built half on land, half in
the water. The sitting-room is up-stairs on the bank, and so is the
'crew's' bedroom, and the front door is made at least three feet below
the surface to prevent being 'frozen out' in winter, or, worse still,
'frozen in.'

"The whole house was neatly rounded off, and so plastered with mud as
to be warm and weather-proof. This is done by means of their
trowel-like tails, which are also of great use in swimming. The house
was so strong that even with an axe we could not get in without very
considerable delay.

"In the deep pond they had dammed up, we found a quantity of birch
poles pegged out. The bark of these forms their winter food, and is
called 'browse.' The beaver cuts off enough for dinner, and takes it
into his house. Sitting up, he takes the stem in his fore paws, and
rolls it round and round against his chisel-shaped incisor teeth,
swallowing the long ribands of bark thus stripped off.... When
surprised they retreat to holes in the bank, of which the entrances
are hidden under water. These are called 'hovels.'

"Beavers always work up wind when felling trees, and cut them on the
water side, so that they fall into the pond if possible, and the wind
helps to blow them home. This beaver we caught proved to be a
hermit--at least he was living alone. He may have been a widower of
unusual constancy. They do not destroy fish, their food in summer
being preferably the stems of the water-lilies. Otters occasionally
kill an