ht of a man above the
surface of the lake, and with broad tops, where the beavers delighted to
sit and sun themselves. Each house was built by its own inhabitants,
and each of them was inhabited by a single pair of beavers--man and
wife--and in some instances where there were families by four or five.
Some of them who had finished their houses earlier than the rest, had
already commenced gathering their provisions for the winter. These
consisted of the leaves and soft twigs of several species of trees--such
as willow, birch, and mulberry--and we saw collections of these floating
in the water in front of several of the houses.

"It was late in the season for beavers to be constructing a new dam. It
is generally in spring when they perform that labour; but it was evident
that the present colony had just arrived--no doubt driven by trappers or
Indians, or perhaps drought, from their last settlement, hundreds of
miles away. We conjectured that they must have come up the stream that
ran away to the eastward.

"They must have entered the valley some time before we discovered them,
as it would have taken them several days to gnaw down the trees and
accumulate the materials for the dam that had so suddenly started up to
alarm us. Some of these trees were nearly a foot in diameter, while
many of the stones--which they had rolled up or carried between their
fore-paws and throat--would have weighed nearly a score of pounds.

"It was evident, then, they had arrived late in the season, and had
worked hard to get ready for the winter. But Cudjo and I were
determined, as soon as we should have finished our building operations,
to lend them a hand in laying in their stock of provisions."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE SAGACIOUS SQUIRREL.

"While we thus stood watching the movements of our beavers, and
conversing about the habits of these interesting animals, an incident
occurred which very much amused us, and proved that the beavers were not
the only animals whom Nature had gifted with extraordinary sagacity.

"Near the middle of the lake stood a clump of tall trees--their trunks
immersed for two or three feet under the water. These trees had been
upon the bank of the rivulet, previous to the formation of the dam; and
they were now surrounded on all sides, forming a kind of timber islet.
It was evident, however, that they were destined to decay, as they were
trees of the poplar species, and such as could not live with their