A BEAVER'S WINTER HOUSE.
By Edmund Collins
THIS sagacious creature, bearing the name "the wise old man of the ponds," among so many Northern hunters, does not become comatose like the bear, but goes into his comfortable house, which is reached by a tunnel running from below the water level of the pond through the bank. The beaver builds his own residence by hollowing out a deep hole in the ground, then putting on a roof of branches and poles, overlaying this thickly with mud, turf, and gravel; but this is done10in such a way that an inexperienced person, walking along the edge of the pond, would pay no heed to it, for it resembles an ordinary turf mound. The beaver swims about through the ponds or creeps through the woods till the water becomes scummed over with ice; then he disappears, and does not come forth again till the spring sun bursts the fetters of winter. Before retiring he collects a store of berries, buds, succulent roots, etc., which are carefully stored away in the inner compartment of his house, and eaten sparingly through the months of imprisonment. I have watched the animal many a time in the autumn cut down rowan trees, laden with the bright, waxy vermilion berries, snip off three or four bunches, go with them to his house, and then return to the fallen tree for more. I have likewise seen him gathering buds and juicy roots and making way with them. In many cases only two beavers live in the same house through the winter, though sometimes the parents and their progeny of the previous summer are found huddled together. There are usually two compartments in the beaver's house, the inner one being drier and used for sleeping.—Our Animal Friends.