Beavers live together, not in large numbers, as used to be supposed, but two or three families in the same pond. Such ponds, however, continue to be inhabited by the descendants of such families, from generation to generation, and as the dams are always being repaired and extended by them, and the canals lengthened, they at last become works of considerable magnitude. No one who first saw one of these great, ancient beaver-dams would suppose it to be the work of comparatively small animals, or, indeed, of any animal at all, except man. As for the canals, their banks soon become covered with moss and vegetation, so that they look like natural sluggish streams, oozing through the flat, marshy land. Mr. Morgan, speaking of them, says: “When I first came upon these canals, and found they were christened with this name, both by Indians and trappers, I doubted their artificial character, and supposed them referable to springs as their producing cause; but their form, location, and evident object showed conclusively that they were beaver excavations.” Again, in considering these wonderful works of a quadruped from the point of view of the intelligence required for their production, the same writer says: “In the excavations of artificial canals, as a means for transporting their wood by water to their lodges, we discover, as it seems to me, the highest act of intelligence and knowledge performed by beavers. Remarkable as the dam may well be considered, from its structure and objects, it scarcely surpasses, if it may be said to equal, these waterways, here called canals, which are executed through the low lands bordering their ponds, for the purpose of reaching the hard wood, and of affording a channel for its transportation to their lodges. To conceive and execute such a design presupposes a more complicated and extended process of reasoning than that required for the construction of a dam, and although a much simpler work to perform, when the thought was fully developed, it was far less to have been expected from a mute animal.” However, I am not sure that I follow Mr. Morgan here. To make a dam must have required as much intelligence as to make a canal, if we suppose that the beaver first said to itself, “I will put an obstacle in the way of the stream, and thus by checking the flow of the water, and causing it to flood its banks, I shall have a nice large pond to live and play in.” That, surely, would have been just as clever as for it to have said or thought, “I will make a waterway from the pond to the trees, and then I shall be able to float my logs down by water instead of having to drag them over the land.” [Illustration: BEAVERS TREE FELLING. When the tree is about to fall the beavers make a dash for the water to escape the unwelcome attentions of their foes, which will be attracted to the spot by the crash of the falling tree.]