The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-06-21

molestation, and held their mass meet
ings and taught the young their alpha
bet and the uses of their jaws and
teeth. I suppose they had chairs,
tables, hunks, &C., but do not know
positively, as the interior Of the
sthouse'' was perfectly dark. The en-
frances to this edifice are subaqueous
just at the foundation, and made by
semi-circuIar ditch in the ground.
What a jolly time these old fogies of
revolutionary ancestors must have had
over their dainty meals of fish with
bark sauce before the labor-saving i'm
plements of destroying man demolish-
ed their expectations Cogitating In
this vein, my eye fell upon a slender
stake standing upright In the ground.
The end exposed was clearly cut by .
beaver, and there was the sslmprint''
of his teeth all along the length OF the
stake exposed to view, showing he had
pealed off the bark. hastily descend
ed from the dome of the sshouse,"
wondering if q beaver put that stake
there. I am neither a Hercules, DIR.
Winship or any other strong man, and
I believed firmly that no beaver could
drive stick upright in the ground or
if perchance, he could, I thought was
strong enough to pull it up. It was a
foolish reckoning made, for with all
my strength could not extract the
stake. Finally, however, by pushing
and pulling, I wrenched the stake from
Its place in the ground. Upon exami-
nation found that both ends of the
stick, AZ feet in length, were cut by the
beaver, that it was 10 inches deep in
the solid earth and had been neatly
dressed and planted there by no one
but the beaver. How was this done?
Pursuing the inquiry I had planned,
I noticed that tho "house'' was plas-
tered above the water with mud, sew
eral inches thick. This was to pre-
vent leakage no doubt-a lesson for
merchants. There was no provision
for shrinkage-unscrupu man with
his pick and spade and his petitions
for advances was unknown to these
beavers.
Inspecting more closely the deserted
hall OF the discounted beavers, itstruck
me that there was
METHOD IN THEIR BUILDING
and that. their sticks were cut by
rule. had a rule-a foot measure
in my pocket-and selecting an arm
full of the "house' logs, laid them
out one by one. After asserting the
pile, found that the sticks were of
seven different lengths, and measured
respectively 10, IA and 1s inches, and
2, 3, 81 and feet. made piles of
each length, and found them exact to
the half of an inch, and after laying
out the standard could readily place
any stick picked up, on the pile to
which it belonged. I found none
longer than four feet and only 2 or
under the minimum, and one of these
I thrust in my pocket to add to my
little museum of curiosities. 1t is not
longer than two inches, with a diane
ter of three inches, cut at both ends by
some old crank-sided, cross eyed bea-
yer who cut his stick that much too
long, and was made to chew the sur
plus off.as a punishment for his care
lessness in measurement.
Although never saw but one beaver
(and ate of his flesh, a very poor dish
even in "war times,'') have read and
heard much of the busy little animal,
yet the tangible evidences of his indus
try and his queer pranks interested me
grcatly-yet much more than have
time or space to tell. Tho pond, as al.
ready stated, is now dry but few
cubic yards of dirt would suffice to res
tore the dam and re-imprison the
waters. The fish end wild fowl, il not
the cunning, industrious beaver, would
return, and the people around Vernon
would have a local attraction, for the
want OF which they now make tedious
journeys to the Dugdemona, Horrors
Lake or the Saline. The dam was cut
in tho belief that the limpid waters OF
the pond caused sickness. I wonder
why agricultural papers are continu.
ally urging the making of fish ponds,
l