Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/163

Rh streams of mud and brush, so intermixed as to make the structure safe and solid. In this work he uses his fore-paws, not his tail, as some have supposed. The tail is used as a propelling and steering power in swimming. The object in dammini: the stream is to deepen the water, so that it will not freeze to the bottom, but leave plenty of room below the ice for the storage of the winter's supply of food. In summer the beaver cuts down the green willows, and divides them into lo:s of proper length, so that they can be readily moved. These logs are deposited at the bottom of the pond, and kept down by mud placed upon them. The willow in its green state is almost as heavy as water, and these logs are easily sunk and eon fined to the bottom. On one portion of his dam the beaver constructs his house, above the water, with an entrance from beneath. This gives him a warm home and safe retreat in winter.

The mode of trapping the beaver is peculiar. The trap itself is never baited. The animal has in his body a secretion something like musk. The trapper finds out the home of the beaver, and selects a place on the side of the pond where the water is shallow near the shore; and there, in the ed_ r e of the stream, he drives down a stake of hard, seasoned wood, which the beaver can not cut. To this stake he fastens a chain that is attached to the trap, and then sets the trap in water some six inches deep. On the shore, exactly opposite the trap, he places a bait of the secretion. The beaver always swims up the center of the pond, and when he comes immediately opposite the bait, he turns at right angles and -roes straight toward it, but is caught in the trap while passing over it. So soon as he feels the trap he endeavors to escape, and drags the trap into deep water as far as the chain will permit. The steel trap is so heavy that the beaver can nut possibly swim with it. but is confined by its weight to the bottom, and is there drowned, as the beaver, like other amphibious animals, can remain alive under water only for a limited time.

The heaver is easily tamed, and makes a very docile and