St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-02-09
ABOUT BEkvERS.
An Interesting Article Concerning These
Clever Four-Footed Engineers and


An Interesting Article Concerning These
f.laycr Four-Eooted Engineers and
Builders.
The beaver. SAYS q writer in Hdrper's
Y0uno PEG, De, is cousin to the rat, having,
like if. those wonderful chlsel-llke teeth
which can do such execution in wood. The
Tat sedan does more than gnaW holes In
floors bnt the beaver will cut down tree
three feet IN diameter. It does not often
cut down such large trees, but has been
known to do It, You might suppose that
the teeth would soon wear out in such SER
vice. and so they would but for the fact
that they are so arranged that they sharpen
each otber-that is, the upper and lower
teeth rub against each other in such a way
in the using, that actually the more the
beaver uses his teeth the sharper they be-
come The wearing away IS provided Tor
bv a constant growth of the teeth. The
teeth grow so rapidly, indeed, that If, by
any chance, an opposing tooth IS absent
bv being knocked out, for example-the re-
naming tooth will grow and grow until 1t
has made curve, and penetrated the Jaw
back of where it entered the mouth.
The great original beaver, which lived
perhaps quarter of million years ago,
was as big as our black bear; but our friend
seldom weighs more than sixty pounds, and
is oftencr thirty-five 1t is short-legged and
heavily built, and is slow and clumsy on
land, In the water, however, 1T is swift and
graceful in its movements; though, as 1t
feeds only on easily obtained vegetable
food, and has no need to catch fish, 1t has
nothing like the wonderful sWiftness OF the
otter Its swimming feet-lts hind ones
are webbed like a ducks. The forefeet are
much used as the squirrels are-like hands.
The tail of the beaver is scaly, troWel-
shaped affair, and because of its troWel
shape has given rise to the story that the
beaver uses it as trowel in building Its
houses and dams. Nobody has ever seen
it so used, however, and as there IS no need
for any such use, it is quite safe to assume
it does not do so. The one thing that Is
certain the beaver does do with its tail is to
slap the water with it. Apparently this
slap is a warning signal among other
things, for when at the sight OF an enemy
the beaver dives into the water, it always
gives this slap as it goes, and at the souEd
all the other beavers within hearing also
take to the water.
A great many exaggerated stories are
told of what the beaver can do. Two sui
! !icicntly wonderful things it certainly does
40, HOWoEcf-lL DullQS udulS sAlu ~ uASo
canals. When pair OF beavers go to house.
keeping they search the unoccupied por-
| tons of the creek they have lived on until
,hev find place where tiny bluff forms
one of the banks. Then, starting at water
| level, they burrow horizontally into the
| bank for about six feet. Then they dig up
ward at a steep incline for about six or
| eight feet, until they reach point which
they consider to be above high water. There
they hollow out a small cave and that is
their summer house. After the burrow is
duy--it takes pair of beavers about one
| night to do 1.-THE dam is built The only
| object of the dam is to raise the water above
| the entrance to the burroW, so that the enc
mics of the beaver will be unable to gain adj
| mission
In some cases the dams required are so
enormous that one pair Of beavers could
never accomplish the work. Then several
pairs combine and cooperate in the labor,
and aftcrward share in the benefits In
building small dam, no great engineering
| skill is required but when the dam IS per-
haps six hundred feet long, a very high de-
/ gree of intelligence is needed to produce a
structure that will hold the body of water
that viii be restrained thereby. And this
Intelligence the beavers show. They first
dig trench across the valley to be damned.
This trench reaches down to the rock or
hard clay bottom, and IS intended to hold
the foundation of the wall, which rises six