ottom; and in their
frolic, often slapping their tails on the water with a loud clacking
sound. While they were thus amusing themselves, another of the
fraternity made his appearance, and looked gravely on their sports for
some time, without offering to join in them. He then climbed the bank
close to where the captain was concealed, and, rearing himself on his
hind quarters, in a sitting position, put his forepaws against a young
pine tree, and began to cut the bark with his teeth. At times he would
tear off a small piece, and holding it between his paws, and retaining
his sedentary position, would feed himself with it, after the fashion of
a monkey. The object of the beaver, however, was evidently to cut down
the tree; and he was proceeding with his work, when he was alarmed by
the approach of Captain Bonneville's men, who, feeling anxious at the
protracted absence of their leader, were coming in search of him. At the
sound of their voices, all the beavers, busy as well as idle, dived
at once beneath the surface, and were no more to be seen. Captain
Bonneville regretted this interruption. He had heard much of the
sagacity of the beaver in cutting down trees, in which, it is said,
they manage to make them fall into the water, and in such a position and
direction as may be most favorable for conveyance to the desired point.
In the present instance, the tree was a tall straight pine, and as it
grew perpendicularly, and there was not a breath of air stirring the
beaver could have felled it in any direction he pleased, if really
capable of exercising a discretion in the matter. He was evidently
engaged in "belting" the tree, and his first incision had been on the
side nearest to the water.

Captain Bonneville, however, discredits, on the whole, the alleged
sagacity of the beaver in this particular, and thinks the animal has
no other aim than to get the tree down, without any of the subtle
calculation as to its mode or direction of falling. This attribute, he
thinks, has been ascribed to them from the circumstance that most trees
growing near water-courses, either lean bodily toward the stream, or
stretch their largest limbs in that direction, to benefit by the space,
the light, and the air to be found there. The beaver, of course, attacks
those trees which are nearest at hand, and on the banks of the stream or
pond. He makes incisions round them, or in technical phrase, belts them
with his teeth, and when they fall, they na