St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-02-09

feet. perhaps, above the surface OF the
ground. The wall is built of the trunks of
small trees, twigs and stones, all cemented
together by mud. Every night, more than
once, each beaver makes it his business to
examine the wall, and repair it if needed.
The lodges, or houses, which the beavers
build in the midst of the pond which they
have made are for winter use only, and are
intended, probably, as relief from the
dismal darkness of their caves, for during
the winter they are naturally kept more at
home, and would therefore see but little
light were it not obtained in the house.
These lodges are built during freezing
weather, and are very substantial affairs,
as they need to be to resist the attacks OF
bears, wolverines, and other fierce AMI
mails, which look upon the beaver as a
choice delicacy. The lodge is built of sticks
and stones cemented together with grass
and mud. 1t rises some six or seven feet
above the surface Of the pond, and when
frozen solid makes an almost impregnable
fortress.
The beavers food is the bark of .deciduous
trees and he is wise enough to lay by sup
ply for winter use before cold weather sets
in. Old trappers say that certain sign OF
the near approach of winter is the gather
ing by the beaver of his winter store The
storehouse is pile of brush firmly an
clDred to the bottom of the pond near the
winter lodge. In this heap the beaver
stores short billets of wood, the bark OF
which is to serve as food. Now it some
times happens that there is no food near
the dam. In such case the beaver mas
been known to dig canal from the dam to
| the nearest possible point to the trees, and
| 80 transport its food home And it Is said
that when the canal leads through
shaping swamp or quagmire, the beaver has
| the wit to make series of dams in it,Which
| act in the same way that locks do in man
pade canal These. canals are sometimes as
much as three feet wide and two feet deep
An interesting story is told of pair
| of pet beavers which shows how
| strong the bodybuilding instinct is in the
| animal. A gentleman living in Montana
| caught pair of kitten beavers, and kept
| them in a box in his barn. They We're gen
| tie, affectionate little creatures and showed
| no disposition to be disconnected with their
| lot,until one day an accident happened which
reused their sleeping instinct for dam.
building, and converted them into shy, wild
beavers almost.in day. The outlet OF the
| watering trough became stopped up, and
/ the water in consequence ran over Inc sfue
and made little stream through the barn
yardsa 1t was the sight of running water
/ that revealed to the beavers the strongest
impulse of their natures At once they
dragged brooms, pitchforks, and every
other available thing to the stream
and did the.best they could to make dam
The next day they disappeared, and 1t was
not until dam arose in stream near by
that the gentleman knew what had become
of his pets. But they were his pets NJ
longer: they had at once become as wild a:
1 if they had never seen man.
The following interesting account by al
eyewitness will show what an importan
/ affair the dam is to the beaver. Tit
gentleman was prospecting for gold il
wyoming at the time, but grasped the op
1 portunity that offered to study the habits o
the beaver:
It was late in the afternoon, and de
termined to camp on the creek above TIN
| dam, and to return to 1t that night In hope
Of seeing the beaver. made Sigh
4 breach in the dam, SO as to lower the water
and then walked through the woods up tn
valley to camp. That night returned t