The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18
TliE BEAV h K.

The beaver is another of the anlmals which are fast disappearing before the barbarian vanguard of civilization From a common and widely distributed animal he has become rare ana local and in most parts of the United states he is already but a faint memory. Kept alive bv such names as Beaver Falls, Beaver Dam and Beaver Brook, given to places which he formerly inhabited. His beautiful fur coat was coveted py man, and according to the unlVersal law of nature he died because 1t was 10 the immediate interest of more poWerIul animal to kill him. Perhaps he mas fulfilled his mission; at the rate, rev animals have done more toward rorhl- ing the contour of the country. Wher- ever he has been he has left lasting monuments to his industry In the form meadows. ponds and waterfalls, and ms name will always be associated "lth peaceful, intelligent lamor
 In appearance, the beaver reminds us somewhat of a muskrat and somewhat of a woodchuck, though he Is larger than either of them In length he
 
 the tip of his blunt nose to the root or his tail. His body is roughly cone shaped. being largest in the rear, ana covered with the rich shining TUT which is at once his weath ana ms death warrant. This fur is of two kinds one composed of long, coarse, glossy chestnut hair, which hides be- meath it thick undercoat, which IS short, thick, soft and silky. The nose of the animal is blunt, the eyes small and the ears short and rounded. The fore feet are short and slender, but the hind feet are large and webbed to the toe nails The former serve the amman in place of hands, while the latter are the propellers which urge him through the water. But the most peculiar part of a beavers anatomy is his tail This appendage is flat and broad and It's horizontal outline is almost a perfect elIipse about foot long and three ana a. half inches wide. It Is about an men thick and covered with angular scales. l It is used by the beaver IS a ruddef 10 guide him while swimming, not as a tray on which to carry building mate rial nor as a trowel to plaster the walls of his dwelling, as some old VII ters would have us believe. The beaV- CT also uses 1t to slap the water as a signal to his companions when there IS danger in the wind
 | The beavers chief title to distinction rests on his ability as an engineer 1 which is perhaps unequaled by any oth- ar four-footed creature. When a colo nv of beavers take possession of body | of water, usually a small, clear river or | brook. they first of all make dam, which throws the water back, flooding the surrounding land and creating a 1 pond the site of a future beaver city. The dam is made of mud, small stones, moss, grass and the branches ot trees ! which have been cut down by the sharp l and powerful incisor teeth of the beav-
 CTS The branches form the framework
 of The dam and the mud, stones, moss and grass are plastered in between the
 sticks, forming a strong, Water-tlght | structure Such a dam is sometimes
 eight feet high and almost quarter ol
 q. mile in length, extending far beyond | the original banks of the stream. It IS
 perhaps ten or twelve feet wide at the | hotton. but much narrower at the top
 as the sides slope toward each other. In the pond thus formed the beavers make their lodges or houses, grea' dome-shaped structures, six or eight
 feet high, and some of them from
 twelve to twenty feet in circumference
 The doorways are under the water, anc
 in front of each the beavers scratch away the mud, forming deeper chan nel that they may sink the wood ln' tended for winter food without danger l of it's being froken in, and that they l mass freely in and out even when the ict is thick upon the pond The tops of tho