armed with two enormous chisel-like teeth in each jaw, is accustomed to cut down trees, often of a surprising size, when its own is taken into consideration. Two or more beavers—according to Mr. Morgan—generally assist in the cutting down of a tree. “Although,” he says, “I have not succeeded in witnessing the act, I have obtained the particulars from Indians and trappers who have. The usual number engaged in the work is but two of a pair; but they are sometimes assisted by two or three young beavers. It thus appears to be the separate work of a family, instead of the joint work of several families. When but two are engaged they work by turns, and alternately stand on the watch, as is the well-known practice of many animals while feeding or at work. When the tree begins to crackle they desist from cutting, which they afterwards continue with caution until it begins to fall, when they plunge into the pond, usually, and wait concealed for a time, as if fearful that the crashing noise of the tree-fall might attract some enemy to the place. The next movement is to cut off the limbs, such as are from two to five and six inches in diameter, and reduce them to a proper length, to be moved to the water and transported thence to the vicinity of their lodges, where they are sunk in a pile as their store of winter provisions. Upon this work the whole family engage with the most persevering industry, and follow it up, night after night, till the work is accomplished.” CHAPTER XV BEAVER “LODGES”—PRIMITIVE BEAVERS—INDIAN BEAVER STORIES—AN ARABIAN NATURALIST. The last chapter left off just as we were coming to the family life of beavers; so to this and the houses in which they live, with other matters growing therefrom, we will devote the present one. Little round huts is what the houses look like, but in America they are called “lodges”; so, as everything we know about beavers comes from that country, we will use the American word. The “beaver-lodge,” then, is shaped something like a beehive, but flatter and broader at the base, and the walls and roof are very thick—from four to five feet, as a general rule, but sometimes even thicker. It is made of a mass of poles and sticks, the shoots and branches of which the beavers gnaw off, and then strip away the bark. They press and interweave them together, and plaster them with mud, much in the same way as they make their dams. They thus become fairly solid structures, but still, as the mud cannot get into all the interstices of the sticks, they are sufficiently porous to answer the purposes of ventilation. Inside, the lodge consists of a circular chamber, the floor of which is formed of mud, which is soon pressed hard and worn quite smooth by the feet of its occupants.