Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-02-04
WORK OF: THE. BEAVER.
Feats Performed by This Indus
.'" trious Little Worker.
A CLEVER HOUSE BUILDER.


ing ~ Large, Though Not So High
as Small Haystaek, and He Ca
Cut Down Big Trees With His Teeth
Almost every one knows something
about the beaver and that It build,
dams and houses to dwell In, but very
few people have seen beavers In theil
wild state. It is also a fact that thu
race Of Industrious little workers II
rapidly disappearing. In the older dis
tricts beavers generally live In the
banks of the streams they inhabit, and
the sight Of beaver house Ii uncom
mon. $t%:tSS
Where beavers do build houses. says
Forest and Stream, the structures diff.
fer greatly in size, shape and location
Some are as large, though of course
less high, than small haystack; 9th.
ers are hardly more than six feet
through at the base They may stant
either wholly on land or partly In the
water and partly on the bank or Who'll
ly in the water. II >s:sssz.;25;;sa
They are never placed In very deep
water, for base must be built for the
house to stand on reaching up1to the
surface, since the chamber Inhabited
by the occupants must be dry
The shape Of those houses on the
shore approaches the conical. Those IN
the water are more irregular, some
times only rounded. at others long and
rather fiat on top. w. 5,
Within each house and connected
with the water by a concealed passage
through which the beavers pass to and
fro is the chamber which ssthe ami
mails dwelling place. T. II z5$.J.
It is large enough to contain seven or
eight Of them and high enough 80 that
= beaver can conveniently sit up on his
launches. 1t is warm, dry and; clean,
for the beaver Is extremely nest in al.
his habits. : - sf&3@$:s&s
The food Of the beaver consists
chiefly Of the green bark Of twigs and
young limbs of various trees. Cotton.
wood bark is preferred; then comes
willow, then alder, but the bark of
almost any tree may be eaten.
I have known them to eat pine and
white cedar. The beaver often cuts
down trees Of very considerable size to
get at the smaller limbs. which they
eat. "a. = 4.~ !. i. . n ;
/ have seen cottonwoods3 twenty
Inches in, diameter 80 cut, and once on
Vancouver island ] found q cedar two
and one-half feet through which they
had gnawed down. ~ ,G.5s$%
The work Of cutting downsa large
tree II done by o. single animal.
have seen the beaver engaged in the
operation, which is as follows: The
beaver sits up on his launches facing
the tree and with its fore paws rest
ing against 1t. With Its head turned
IN one side he cuts.a groove above
md then one below and bites out the
hin, taking it OF in almost the same
way an axman would. s,B%
He thus saves himself the trouble
Il gnawing all the wood up into fine
cuttings. When the tree is felled the
whole community attack and cut up
he tender limbs. carrying them away |
o the cache. .!,y&. i #%1~. a,3S.
Unlike many of our gnawing AMI
nails, the beaver does not sleep through
he winter. ], He remains active, often |
'enturtng abroad during the whole of |
he cold weather. He must, therefore,
ave food, and large part Of the
ummer aud autumn II devoted to se-
ur1ng this food and depositing Il In
aches. This food consists Of the
limbs. and twigs Of the trees most pre-
erred by the beaver. l*. +s@3.st
They are cut from one and 1 half
. three feet long. stripped Of their
saves and smaller twigs, carried to
be water and doated to the cache,
vhere they are sunk. And here comes
very curious point. #.:4s5&s
These sticks are noated to the cache
nd are sunk by the beaver to the bot
I'm Of the water, where they remain ]
'ithout any apparent anchorage. They
re not stuck in the mud Of the bot II
I'm or held down BY weights. II
on lift one to the surface it WIN
oat, but you may move it about on /
V bottom without its rising.
I have myself tried this with sticks |
ON which tho bark has been eaten, i
ut have never done 70 with the green, |
npeeled limbs before, the beavers had
ken them into their. houses. This
after to me II very mysterious one,
i'd l have never been able to ret any
INT 40 to how these sticks were sunk.
All through the winter the beavers
sit these caches, carry the sticks TO
leir houses, where they. eat 81 the
lrk, returning the bare sticks "a the
alter. dss5st Ut Ssszg &4E.I. ;.
Sometimes it may happen that for
me reason or other the cache may
It. contain enough to last the whole
inter. In this case the beavers, II
'ssible, get on land through some al
lie or piece Of open water and then
rage among the timber. Occasional
combination Of scarcity and ssysre
eather may oblige the colony to emil
ate during the winter to some moro
vorabls spot. ', II
I'll. & courtins Trouble.
4 Look here. " said the omcial, '.thers1l
trouble II your wife disregards No.
hen " persfstentiY tai hor sl,a mnrf