As soon as a tree falls, the beavers set to work industriously to lop
off the branches, which, as well as the smaller trunks, they cut into
lengths, according to their weight and thickness. These are then
dragged by main force to the water-side, launched, and floated to
their destination. Beavers build their houses, or "lodges," under the
banks of rivers and lakes, and always select those of such depth of
water that there is no danger of their being frozen to the bottom.
When such cannot be found, and they are compelled to build in small
rivulets of insufficient depth, these clever little creatures dam up
the waters until they are deep enough. The banks thrown up by them
across rivulets for this purpose are of great strength, and would do
credit to human engineers. Their lodges are built of sticks, mud, and
stones, which form a compact mass; this freezes solid in winter, and
defies the assaults of that housebreaker, the wolverine, an animal
which is the beaver's implacable foe. From this lodge, which is
capable often of holding four old and six or eight young ones, a
communication is maintained with the water below the ice, so that,
should the wolverine succeed in breaking up the lodge, he finds the
family "not at home," they having made good their retreat by the
back-door.
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