The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-10-10
WORK OF THE BEAVER
Feats Performed by This Indus
trious Little Worker.
A CLEVER HOUSE BUILDER

0o 10 ~oPOpio OF Communicating 0wSu.
ing ~ Large, Though Not So High,
a. . Small Haystaek, and He Can
Gut Down Big Trees With His Teeth.
Almost every one knows something
about the beaver and that 1t builds
dams and houses to dwell in, but very
few people have seen beavers In their
wild state. 1t is also q fact that the
race Of industrious little workers is
rapidly disappearing. In the older dis
tricts beavers generally live in the
banks of the streams they inhabit, and
the sight " beaver house Is uncom-
mon.
Where beavers do build houses. says
Forest and Stream, the structures diff
fer greatly in size, shape and location.
Some are as large, though Of course
less high, than a small haystack; 9th
ers are hardly more than six feet
through at the base. They may stand
either wholly on land or partly In the
water and partly on the bank or who'll
ly in the water.
They are never placed in very deep
water, for base must be built for the
house to stand on reaching up to the
surface, since the chamber inha bited
by the occupants must be dry.
The shape OF those houses on the
shore approaches the conical. Those in
the water are more irregular. some
times only rounded, at others long and
rather fat on top.
Within each house and connected
with the water by a concealed passage
through which the beavers pass to and
fro is the chamber which is the ami
mails dwelling place.
It Is large enough to contain seven or
eight of them and high enough SO that
a beaver can conveniently sit up on his
launches. 1t is warm, dry and clean,
for the beaver Is extremely neat in all
his habits.
The food of the beaver consists
chiefly of the green bark of twigs and
young limbs OF various trees. Cotton
wood bark is preferred: then comes
willow. then alder. but the bark of
almost any tree may be eaten.
I have known them to eat pine and
white cedar. The beaver often cuts
down trees Of very considerable size to
get at the smaller limbs. which they
eat
I have seen cottonwoods twenty
inches In diameter so cut. and once on
Vancouver island / found a cedar two
and one-half feet through which they
had gnawed down.
The work of cutting down a large
tree is done by single animal.
have seen the beaver engaged in the
operation. which is as follows: TIL
beaver sits up on his haunc hes facint
the tree and with isS fore paws rest
Ing against 1t. VII II head turne
on one side he Gu a groove above
and then one below and bites out ths
chin. taking 1t OF In almost the same
way an axman would
He thus saves himself the trouble
Of gnawing all the wood up into fns
cuttings When the tree is felled tn.
| whole community attack and cut az
the tender limbs. carrying them ava,
| to the cache.
Unlike many Of our gnawing ami
mails. the beaver does not sleep through
| the winter He remains active. Otter
venturing abroad during the whole o
| the cold weather. He must. therefore
nave food. and a large part of tn,
summer and autumn is devoted to se
| curing this food and depositing 1t Ii
| caches. This food consists Of tn
limbs and twigs of the trees most pre-
| ferred by the beaver.
| They are cut from one and q hal
! to three feek long. gtTinDed Of fhei