y a wonderful provision of Nature its instinct enables it
to produce them by its own exertions. Where it can find rivers, brooks,
and swampy lakes which maintain an even level throughout the year, the
beaver has a tolerably idle life; but as in most districts the levels of
rivers and lakes are apt to sink at various seasons if left to
themselves,--whenever an emigrant party of beavers have fixed on a new
locality, they set to work to dam up the stream or outlet of the lake,
to prevent a catastrophe which might bring ruin and destruction on their
new colony. In Nova Scotia, as well as in other parts of North America,
large level spaces are found covered with a rich alluvial soil, from
which spring up waving fields of wild grass. From this the human
settler draws an abundant supply of hay for his stock in winter, and
ought to feel deeply indebted to the persevering beaver for the boon.
They are known as "wild meadows," and are of frequent occurrence in the
backwoods. It is evident that they were formed by the following
process:--They are found in valleys through which, in ages past, a brook
trickled. A party of beavers arriving, and finding an abundance of food
on the side of the hills, would set to work to form a dam of sufficient
strength to keep back the stream, till a pond was created, on the edge
of which they might build their dome-shaped habitations. Extensive
spaces in the woods were thus inundated, and the colony of beavers lived
for long years on the banks of their artificial lakes. They, however,
lacking forethought, like many human beings, did not sufficiently look
to the future. In process of time the trees, being destroyed, decayed
and fell; while the soil, washed down from the surrounding hills, filled
up the pond constructed by the industrious animals, and they were
compelled to migrate to some other region, or were destroyed. The dam
being thus left unrepaired, the water drained through it, and the level
space was converted into the rich meadow which has been described.
Beavers' houses, however, are seen in all directions, sometimes on the
banks of these artificial ponds, at others by the sides of large lakes
or rivers. Though varying in size, they all greatly resemble a huge
bird's-nest turned upside down. Some are eight feet in diameter, and
three feet in height; while others are very much larger, being no less
than sixteen to twenty feet in diameter, and nearly eight feet in height
on the outs