Henry Abbott

“ He could easily have outdistanced the canoe and got away from it, but he chose to swim slowly and allow the canoe to approach until the girls might have touched him with a paddle, when he would hump himself, slap the water with his tail, thus throwing showers of spray over the girls, while he dived under the canoe and presently came to the surface in some new and unexpected position. The girls, of course, with screams and excited shouts frantically swung the canoe into position and started the chase over again; while the beaver loafed along until they caught up. ”

“ I have devoted some time to speculating as to the motive that might conceivably actuate a perfectly sane and intelligent beaver to haul his lumber more than a mile, when in doing so he would have to pass by hundreds of other equally good trees, many of them within a few rods of his house. ”

“ A poplar tree eighteen inches in diameter was cut on the shore of our pond and felled into the water. The branches that remained above the surface were cut off and carried to the storage pile. Those that were under water were left and were cut off under the ice during the following winter.
Beavers are generally peaceable. They have many admirable traits. Individuals of one colony will assist those of another in strenuous operations much as pioneer humans helped each other in building log cabins, in barn raisings, etc. ”

“ My own guess, if I were to hazard one, would be that since a beaver house must generally be placed in an exposed position, its owners find that with the sun beating down on its roof during June, July and August, the poorly ventilated interior becomes too hot for comfort. On the other hand, I have noted that the burrows in which they live in summer, are usually found under some overhanging tree, in a cool spot where the sun never penetrates.
During our wanderings through the woods that summer, Bige and I came upon a family of beavers at Mud Pond. ”

“ A very high grade of what is called "instinct" in animals must be required to calculate and determine just how much food to store for a winter's supply for a family of a given size. It has been asserted by those who think they know, that in this matter a beaver never makes a mistake. ”

“ In order to demonstrate his theory, Bige took the axe from camp, cut a poplar sapling an inch and a half in diameter and the usual beaver length, put one end in the water and sucked on the other end of the stick. After repeated trials and failures to make the stick do anything but float, Bige decided that his "sucker was not powerful enough." The next day, looking down into the water from our boat, we saw one end of the axe-cut stick in the wood pile with other sticks cut by beaver teeth. ”

“ Sabattis explained that it was the practice of the Indians to take only a few animals from each colony, when they would move their traps to another dam. Thus there were always enough beaver left for breeding and they increased rapidly. But the white trappers, when they came, caught every beaver and took every skin, big and little, with the result that in a few years' time, beaver had been exterminated from the Adirondack forests and none ever came in again. ”

“ Immediately on the arrival of the female beaver the two began work building a house. This was placed on a point of land between the mouth of the river and a shallow bay or slough. The base of the house was about a foot above the normal level of the pond. Straight sticks and crooked branches two to four inches in diameter and about five feet long were placed on the ground for a foundation and were arranged in a circle like the spokes of a wheel. On these were piled other sticks, brush, stones, sod and mud, which latter was used as cement or mortar to bind the other materials together. ”

“ Always the white crowned beaver was the leader and seemed to be directing the work of the other. When the structure was completed it proved to be an excellent example of reinforced concrete work of a most substantial character. Nevertheless, six weeks later, just before freezing weather started, a final coating of mud three inches thick was plastered over the entire outside surface of the house. When frozen, this armor plate would furnish complete protection to the furry inhabitants against their most ferocious enemies during the long and hungry months of winter. ”

“ On Salmon River, from its mouth to Salmon Pond (which it drains) , a distance of six miles, there is now a beaver dam every half mile. At one of these dams, a few years ago, we found the Chief Engineer at work. The dam was placed where the current was swift, and a big rock in mid stream was utilized as a pier, against which the two sections of the dam were braced. Such an adaptation of available means to accomplish a difficult engineering feat is surely something more than merely instinct. ”

“ A lot of men were at work building a "tote road" for a lumber camp over the other side of the mountain about three miles from our camp. Bige went over to call on them, and he came back with four sticks of dynamite and some fuse. These we connected and placed on top of the dam. We covered the dynamite with mud, lighted the fuse, jumped into our boat and rowed as fast as possible down toward the pond. ”

“ The "old man" now went off on his annual exploring trip, but he took with him the four older children, while the mother and the babies remained behind. As usual, the house was deserted during the summer months. We now noted several burrows under the bank at widely separate places along shore. Sometimes the beaver would be seen entering one of these holes and again another.
It is interesting and easy, to study the habits of wild creatures, and to note how uniform are their methods and practices. It is not so easy to determine reasons for their peculiar way of doing things. ”

“ A curious fact we noted, was, that while both banks of the river were strewn with fragments of the old dam, not a single piece of this tainted and dangerous material was used. New trees and bushes were cut and carried greater distances for the rebuilding.
At this stage of the war, Bige and I surrendered. We were hopelessly outnumbered and outclassed by the beavers. They worked while we were asleep. We now got busy and cut out a new trail around the swamp and the flooded area to connect with the old trail. This makes the walk fully a half mile longer than before the dam was built. ”

“ Whether the "old man" went after her, whether he sent a wireless message or a telepathic command, or whether the date of her coming had been arranged between them before he left home, we never knew. It seems quite probable that she just naturally knew that it was high time for her husband to stop exploring and loafing and to get busy building a house and storing a supply of food for the winter, so she arrived. ”

“ Bige allowed that "if it really was a bear, he wasn't hurt much. You couldn't kill a bear with that pop-gun. (I was using a Winchester 30) . Why, a bear's hide is thicker than sole-leather and this time of year he has an armor-plate of fat under it, six inches thick. You might as well try to shoot a hole through a feather pillow. If you are going to hunt bear, take an elephant-gun — a 45-90."
After breakfast, we all started out on the trail of the bear. We found blood spots in the log-road. We also measured a foot print in a soft place in the path. It was twelve inches in diameter. ”

“ A swamp at the upper end was entirely covered and afforded water transportation from a large grove of poplar trees, which without the dam could not have been reached. Five years later, on the shores of this pond, the beavers had completely cleared of trees more than ten acres of ground. At this time four beaver houses were observed on the shore and on islands in Mud Pond.
When three years old, the children of the Chief Engineer left the parental homestead, mated with relatives in other colonies and set up house building and house keeping on their own account. ”

“ We aimed toward the mouth of the river about half of a mile from camp and across the pond. No land-marks were visible, so we steered by "dead reckoning." Bige was feathering his paddle, Indian fashion without lifting it out of the water, so we silently proceeded, making no ripple on the surface and yet, at first, rather swiftly.
The Chief Engineer
A few minutes later, the bow of the boat struck some yielding obstacle. My first thought was that we had hit a mossy, overhanging bank on the opposite shore of the pond. In times of stress, thoughts follow each other in rapid succession. ”

“ Each dam raised the level of water from two to three feet. There were thirteen of these levels varying in length from fifty, to two hundred and fifty feet. Water from a spring brook was diverted into the canal and flowed over each dam. The beavers towed their lumber through this canal and dragged it over the several dams, each of which seemed to be especially constructed to facilitate this operation. The length of this canal we estimated to be twenty-five hundred feet.
Beavers appear to prefer the bark of smaller trees, but they do not hesitate to cut down a large one when necessary. ”

“ A few days after our encounter with the animal as above related, we learned, while making inquiries, that during the previous season the Conservation Commission of the State had "planted" a family of six beavers on one of the streams emptying into Raquette Lake, and we concluded that the individual we met was an emigrant from that colony. ”

“ Tree 18 Inches in Diameter Partly Cut by Beaver
Our observations justify the belief that at least some beavers have a sense of humor. We mention two incidents in support of the theory. One day on the big lake, near the hotel, I saw two girls about twelve years of age, in a canoe. These girls were chasing a beaver. The beaver was swimming on the surface and he was more than half a mile from his house. ”