The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-20
BEAVERS BUSY IN BRONX PARK.
Working or. Dam by Day They Present
 an Unusual Sight

Working on Dam by Day They Present an Unusual Sight. N Visitors to the Bronx Geological Park on a day early in the past week were treated to the unusual sight of a beaver
 working on the dam which the colony has built at the lower end of the bea- yer inclosure near the bear dens. As a rule, the beavers are not very promis- ing show animals, preferring to carry
 on their building operations at night, and rarely showing themselves during
 the hours when the institution is open to the public, and the instance men toned is the first in the knowledge of the keepers when any of the animals have worked on the dam in the full light of day.
 The dam the beavers have raised ex- tends in half circle about forty feet across the lower end of the hollow in which they are quartered. It varies from eight to ten feet in width and is
 built to height of six feet. It's con- struction shows that the beaver is in no way choice about the materials used in the building, the body of the dam being composed of conglomerate mass of tree trunks, boards, fence posts, brush, grasses, roots, stones and mud, and the
 animals have even appropriated the
 runways of duck houses.
 When the spot, which is a couple of acres in extent, was first given over to the use of the beavers two years ago 1t was a pretty little valley with a con siderable growth of strong young tiin- Der and with one tiny brook winding it's way among the trees. Into this was turned seven beavers collected in. the neighborhood of the Lower Rio Grande river in Texas. < The animals have proved very de- structive, and have created sad havoc with the trees and general topograph of the inclosure in their attempt to build home suitable for their uses. Damnling up the brook with mud and grasses. they gradually flooded their in closure until they had a foot or more water over the greater part of the hol- low. Then they took up the more seri- ous work of rearing the permanent dam. This led to an attack on the trees further back in the inclosure, which could now be doated to the dam site.
 The ease and rapidity with which the beavers hazed these trees, according to Director Hornaday, was remarkab ble. Trees eight inches through their trunks would be uprooted or gnawed through in a single night, and would be found in the morning often in two parts, add ing their support to the growing dam.
 How to save the remaining trees be- came a problem to the director, as it was evident the beavers would destroy them if some remedial action was not soon taken. The. problem seems to have been salved by sheathing the re- mairling trees with heavy sheet iron and wire mesh near their roots, for,
 while the beavers have now. a depth of
 water varying from four to seven feet over their entire quarters, the trees so
 protected have not been nolested.
 Many theories have been put forward
 as to tie manner in which the beaver
 carries the materials used on the dam, particularly the mud. The beaver seen at work in the Bronx Park was re pairing a break caused by the recent heavy rains, The animal seemed to be | in no way annoyed by the presence#o of a small group of spectators gathered quite near the scene of his repairing operations, although, according to the keepers, it is their usual custom to cease work and scamper away to their