The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-08
FEATS or THE BEAVER.
Ability to Cut Timber and Handle II bus
lest ON Moonlight Nights.

Ability to Cut Timber and Handle II
lest on Moonlight Nights.
1t is wonderful what large pieces Of wood
a beaver will move. say q writer in Outdoor
Life. / have frequently seen cuttings OF
cottonwood large enough for fence posts
that had been moved over level ground and
through underbrush to water several hun
dred feet away.
II timber is cut on o bank where a down
grade can be had all the way to the streams
much larger pieces will be moved. Beavers
are very skilful wood choppers and seldom
fail to fell q tree in the right direction; that
is, with the butts all pointing toward the
trail to the stream, and never Telling tho
top Of one tree into the top Of another.
Smooth trails are always made from the
scene Of the operations or land to the water
and all Of the material is carried over them,
II the cutting happens to be on a side hill
above the stream q slide not unlike that
sometimes used by lumbermen will be
made.
The cutting Of the large growth stuff Is
mainly done in the fall and winter; willows,
small poplars and o~ottonwoods being used
in the spring and summer. After getting
down the larger trees the branches are all
cut of and made into lengths suitable for
transporting and taken to the water, after
which the trunk Ia cut up n as much OF
It removed as possible.
The bark OF these pieces, which with The
twlgs forms the principal item Of food, is
all gnawed of in the water or at the houses.
The barked sticks are then used in repairing
or strengthening the dams or stacked on
top of the house.
Beavers generally work on moonli ght
nights only, and scarcely ever In the day
time, though they may sometimes be seen
making repairs on q dam when It needs i'm.
mediate attention.
Contrary to the general opinion the
beaver does not always build a house for
himself. being content very often with a
burrow in the bank OF. the stream. As Ia
the case with the houses the entrance to a
burrow is under water, though sometimes
which brush and sticks are carried for their
food supply.
These burrows are sometimes very con-
modious and ofer comfortable quarters i,or
a large colony. They seem to be Reneraiy
dug from tho banks Of a stream which Is
and which has q deep channel. a lone
beaver who has been driven out by his
fellows for some cause or other Is very,
likely to make such a home in the bank OF
q stream.
When a colony Of beaver is harassed by
its enemies or when internal dissensions
arise a part or the whole Of the colony viii
establish a new home some distance away.
They lose no time in choosing a weak portion
Of the river, where the banks are we'll
wooded, and fall at onoe to work.
Who're the river In rapid one OF, the 'low
reaches between the rapids is chosen, lor
a dam. The wood Is cut above the dam,
site, sometimes at quite a distance, ana
transported to the water, where 1T can ne
easily moved down stream. a.,
The sticks are placed more or less paraie,
to each other, so as TO make a compact
structure, and the continuous pile thus
resulting extends directly across the stream.
Mud is continually used 10 fill the intet.
stices as the dam grows in height AZ
some distance up stream the house Is nov,
built, also OF sticks and mud, in as secluded
and inaccessible a place IA possible:
In the days Of our great-grandfathprs
the beaver vas a resident of many streams
and small lakes all the way from MAINS
to Oregon. He Is now numbered among
u rare animals, and a few years az"
seemed doomed to total extinction,
Recently some Of the Northwest Sa,es
have given him a certain amount Of, pre-
teotion, and in favorable localities oil ne
region he IL now Increasing quite rap'o''
In numbers.