The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1924-09-25
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Ability to Cut Timber and Handle Is.
sueiest on Moonlight Nights.

Rphity 70 Cur Timber and Handle II,
6ueiest on Moonlight Nights.
1t is wonderful what a large piece
Of wood a beaver will move, says a
writer in Outdoor Life. have fire.
quently seen cuttings of cottonwood
large enough for fence posts that had
been moved over level ground and
through underbrush to water several
hundred feet away.
If timber is cut on bank where a
down grade can be had all the way
to the streams much larger pieces
will be moved. Beavers are very
sldlful wood choppers and seldom fail
to fell tree in the right direction;
that is, with the butts all pointing
toward the trail to the stream, and
never failing the top Of one tree in.
to the top of another.
Smooth trails are always made
from the scene of operations on land
to the water and all of the material
Is carried over them. If the cutting
happens to be on side hill above the
stream a slide not unlike that some.
times used by Iumbermen will be
made.
The cutting Of the large growth
stuff is mainly done in the fall and
winter; willows, small poplars and
cottonwoods being used in the spring
and summer. After getting down the
larger trees the branches are all cut
off and made into lengths suitable
for transporting and taken to the
water, after which the trunk is cut up
and as much of it removed as pos
sible.
The bark Of these pieces, which
with the twigs form the pricipal item
of food. is all gnawed off in the
water or at the houses. The parked
sticks are then used in repairing or
strengthening the dams or stacked on
top of the house
Beavers generally work on moon
light nights only, and scarcely ever
In the daytime, though they may
sometimes be seen making repairs on
a dam when 1t needs Immediate atten
ton.
Contrary to the general opinion
the beaver does not always build q
house for himself, being content very
often with burrow in the bank OF
the stream. AS is the case with the
houses the entrance to a hurrow is
under water, though sometimes there
is an opening from the surface
through which brush and sticks are
carried for their food supply. -
These burrows are sometimes very
commodious and offer comfortable
quarters for large colony. They
seem to be generally dug in the banks
Of stream which Is too swift to
make the building of dams easy and
which has deep channel A lone
beaver who has been driven out by
his fellows for some cause or other
Is very likely to make such home in
the bank of stream.
When a colony OF beaver is harassed
by It's enemies or when internal dis.
sensions arise part or the whole Of
the colony will establish new home
Some distance away. They lose nc
time in choosing weak portion OF
the river, where the banks are well
wooded, and fall at once to work.
Where the river is rapid one of the
slow reaches between the rapids is
chosen for dam The wood is cut
above the damsite. sometimes at
quite O distance, and transported to
the water. where It can be easily
across the stream.
The sticks are placed more or loss
parallel with each other. so as to
make compact structure, and the
pile thus resulting extends directly
, tends directly across the stream.
Mud is continually used to fl the
interstices as the dam grows in
height. At some distance up stream
the house is now built, also of sticks
and mud, in as secluded and mac
cessible place as possible.
In the days Of our great-grand-
fathers the beaver was a resident OF
many streams and small lakes all the
way from Maine 20 Oregon. He Is
now numbered among our rare ami
mails, and few years ago seemed
doomed to total extinction
Recently some of the Northwest
States have given him a certain
amount of protection, and in favorable
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