Enos A. Mills

“ This canal was new and probably had been dug especially for this harvest. For sixty feet of its length it was quite regular in form and had an average width of thirty inches and a depth of fourteen. The mud dug in making it was piled evenly along the lower side. Altogether it looked more like the work of a careful man with a shovel than of beaver without tools. Seepage and overflow from the ponds above filled and flowed slowly through it and out at the farther end, where it swept down the long slide into the big pond. ”

“ Some were quietly at work spreading a coat of mud on the outside of each house. This would freeze and defy the tooth and claw of the hungriest or the strongest predaceous enemy. Four beavers were leisurely lengthening and repairing a dam. A few worked singly, but most of them were in groups. All worked quietly and with apparent deliberation, but all were in motion, so that it was a busy scene. “To work like a beaver!” What a stirring exhibition of beaver industry and forethought I viewed from my boulder-pile! ”

“ In the golden age of the beaver, their countless colonies clustered all over our land. These primeval folk then gathered their harvest. Innumerable beaver ponds, which [Pg 220] then shone everywhere in the sun, slowly filled with deposited, outspreading soil,—and vanished. Elm avenues now arch where the low-growing willow drooped across the canal, and a populous village stands upon the seat of a primitive and forgotten colony.
A live beaver is more valuable to mankind than a dead one. ”

“ How long does a beaver live? Trappers say from fifteen to fifty years. I had glimpses of Flat-top through eighteen years, and he must have been not less than four years of age when I first met him. This would make his age twenty-two years; but he may have been six years of age—he looked it—the morning he first led emigrants into Lily Lake; and he may have lived a few years after I saw him last. But only the chosen few among the beaver can succeed in living as long as Flat-top. The last time I saw him was the day he dared me and blockaded the drain ditch and stopped the outrushing water. ”

“ A YOUNG BEAVER SUNNING HIMSELF
He had a bad fright one evening. About one hour before sundown we had encamped as usual alongside a stream. He entered the water and after swimming about for a time, taking a dozen or so merry dives, he crossed to the opposite side. In plain view, only fifty feet away, I watched him as he busily dug out roots of the Oregon grape and then stopped leisurely to eat them. While he was thus engaged, a coyote made a dash for him from behind a boulder. Diver dodged, and the coyote missed. ”

“ This bulk of stores together with numerous roots of willow and water plants, which are eaten in the water from the bottom of the pond, would support a numerous beaver population through the days of ice and snow.
When I took my last tour through the colony everything was ready for the long and cold winter. Dams were in repair and ponds were brimming over with water, the fresh coats of mud on the houses were freezing to defy enemies, and a bountiful harvest was home. Harvest-gathering is full [Pg 98] of hope and romance. What a joy it must be to every man or animal who has a hand in it! ”

“ Wonders of Nature and Art seems to have not only collected all the fictions into which other writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly improved on them that little remains to be added to his account of the beaver beside a vocabulary of their language, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their religion, to make it the most complete natural history of that animal. ”

“ Tree-cutting is an interesting phase of beaver life. A beaver will go waddling dully from the water to a tree he is about to cut down. All will look about for enemies; one may be wise enough—but the majority will not do so—to look upward to see if the tree about to be felled is entangled at the top. All appear to choose a comfortable place on which to squat or sit while cutting.
Commonly when the tree begins to creak and settle, the beaver who has done the cutting thuds the ground a few times with his tail, and then scampers away, usually going into the water. ”

“ Goodly preparations are annually made for winter. Apparently the extent of the preparation in any colony is dependent almost entirely upon the number of beaver that are to winter in that colony. Winter preparations consist of gathering the food-harvest, repairing and sometimes raising the dam, and commonly covering the house with a layer of mud. Beaver display forethought, intelligence, and even wisdom, but being weather-wise is not one of their successful specialties. ”

“ Ice is one of the troubles of beaver existence. It is of the utmost importance to the beaver that he should have his house so situated that the ice of winter does not close the entrance to it, and also that the deep water in which his pile of green provisions is deposited does not freeze solid and thus exclude him from the food-supply. The ice fills the pond from the top and compels him to be constantly vigilant to save himself from its encroachments. ”

“ By late summer or early autumn the beaver have assembled at the place where the winter is to be spent. There are patriarchs, youngsters, and those in the prime of life. Around the old home are many who set forth from it when the violets were blooming, when the grass was at its greenest, and when mated birds were building. During the summer a few perished, while others cast their lot with other established colonies. A few of the younger make a start for themselves in new scenes,—found a new colony. Again the dam is repaired and the house recovered ”

“ Both the Indians and the trappers have a story that old beaver who will not work are driven from the colony and become morose outcasts, slowly living away the days by themselves in a burrow. I have no evidence to verify this statement, and am inclined to think that solitary beaver occasionally found in abandoned colony-sites and elsewhere are simply unfortunates, perhaps weighed down with age, unable to travel far, with teeth worn, the mate dead, without ambition to try, or without strength to emigrate. ”

“ But why do beaver need or want the pond which the dam forms? They need it for the purpose of maintaining water of sufficient depth and area to enable them to move about in safety, and to transport their food-supplies with the greatest ease. Above all, the pond is a place of refuge into which the beaver can constantly plunge and have security from his numerous and ever watchful enemies. The house-entrance must be kept water-covered. In the water the beaver is in his element. On the land he is a child lost in the wilds. He has extremely short legs and a heavy body. ”

“ The beaver, considered as an engineer, is a remarkable animal. He can run a tunnel as direct as the best engineer could do with his instruments to [Pg 60] guide him. I have seen where they have built a dam across a stream, and not having sufficient head water to keep their pond full, they would cross to a stream higher up the side of the mountain, and cut a ditch from the upper stream and connect it with the pond of the lower, and do it as neatly as an engineer with his tools could possibly do it. ”

“ Beaver would help keep America beautiful. A beaver colony in the wilds gives a touch of romance and a rare charm to the outdoors. The works of the beaver have ever intensely interested the human mind. ”

“ Although carnivorous animals are fond of beaver flesh, they rarely take the useless trouble of digging into a house. Occasionally a wolverine or a bear may dig into a thin-walled house or one not frozen, then, after breaking in, lie in wait, and endeavor to make a capture while the beaver are repairing the hole. Beaver are more secure from enemies during the winter than at any other time. It is while felling a tree far from the water or while following a shallow stream that most beaver are captured by their enemies. ”

“ One might read almost the entire mass of printed matter concerning the beaver without obtaining correct information about his manners and customs or an accurate description of his works and without getting at the real character of this animal. The actual life and character of the beaver, however, the work which he does, the unusual things which he has accomplished, are really more interesting and place the beaver on a higher plane than do all the fictitious tales and exaggerated accounts written concerning him. ”

“ It is fortunate that the trees which the beaver fell and use for food or building purposes are water-loving trees, which not only sprout from both stump and root, but grow with exceeding rapidity. Among other lesser foods used are berries, mushrooms, sedge, grass, and the leaves and stalks of a number of plants. In winter dried grass and leaves are sometimes used, and in this season the rootstocks of the pond-lily and the roots of the willow, alder, birch, and other water-loving trees that may be got from the bottom of the pond. Beaver are vegetarians; they do not eat fish or flesh. ”

“ Sometimes a small dam will be made—that may ultimately become a big one—by simply digging a ditch across the stream or basin and piling the excavated material into a dam.
Beaver, like men, are unequal in their skill, both in planning and in doing work, and the work of most beaver falls short of perfection. Errors are [Pg 68] not uncommon. More than one colony has commenced a dam apparently without knowing that there was not sufficient available material to complete it. Others have built in the wrong places, and have thus failed to flood the area which they desired to reach or cover with water. ”

“ However, many a house is a crude haphazard pile of material in which a room has been burrowed.
The room is from one to three feet high, and from three to twenty feet across. The room is a kind of a burrow and is without either door or window. Half-buried sticks make a comparatively dry floor, despite the fact that it is only a few inches above water-level. Beaver sleep on the floor, usually with tail bent along the side after the fashion of a dozing cat, in a nest of shredded wood, which they patiently make by thinly splitting [Pg 123] and paring pieces of wood. ”

“ In most old beaver colonies, where the character of the bottom of the pond permits it, there are two or more tunnels or subways beneath the floor of the principal pond. The main tunnel begins close to the foundation of the house, and penetrates the earth a foot or more beneath the water to a point on land a few feet beyond the shore-line. If there are a number of small ponds in a colony that are separated by fingers of land, it is not uncommon for these bits of land to be penetrated by a thoroughfare tunnel. ”

“ When there is nothing else to do, the beaver apparently comes into the pond a few times each day for a swim. In the midst of swimming he rises at times to the under surface of the ice and, with his nose against it, exhales a quantity of air. ”

“ Beaver spend much time dressing their fur and bathing, as they are harassed by lice and other parasites. At rare intervals they are afflicted with disease. They live from twelve to fifteen years and sometimes longer. Man is the worst enemy of the beaver.
A thousand trappers unite to tell the same pitiable tale of a trapped beaver’s last moments. If the animal has not succeeded in drowning himself or tearing off a foot and escaping, the trapper smashes the beaver’s head with his hatchet. ”

“ A beaver pond is a leaky reservoir, a kind of spring as it were, and if stored full during rainy days the leakage from it will help maintain stream-flow below during the dry weather. Beaver works thus tend to distribute to streams a moderate quantity of water each day. In other words they spread out or distribute the water of the few rainy days through all the days of the year.
A river which flows steadily throughout the year is of inestimable value to mankind. If floods sweep a river, they do damage. ”

“ Running water dissolves and erodes away the earthy materials with which it comes in contact. The presence of a beaver pond and dam across a stream’s highway prevents the wearing and the carrying away of material. They not only prevent [Pg 218] erosion or wearing away, but they take soil and sediment from the water which comes to them and thus cause an upbuilding. Hence the presence of beaver ponds along streams causes an accumulation of sediment and soil. In time these fill rocky channels and cañons, widen and lengthen valleys, and thus extend the productive area of the earth. ”

“ Each one is capable of acting independently. Since the quality of his work improves as the beaver increases his experience, it appears natural and probable that each colony of beaver has a leader who plans and directs the work. I am familiar with a number of instances which strongly indicate leadership. In times of emergency, when an entire colony is forced to emigrate, a beaver—and usually an aged one—takes the lead, and wherever he goes the others willingly follow. ”