“Perhaps,” observed Mr Campbell, “this choice requires more sagacity than the rest of their labour, for the beavers must have some engineering talent to make the selection; they must be able to calculate as exactly as if they took their levels, to secure the size and depth of water in the pond which is necessary. It is the most wonderful, perhaps, of all the instincts, or reasoning powers rather, allotted to them.”
“It is, sir; and I’ve often thought so,” replied Malachi; “and then to see how they carry all their tools about them; a carpenter’s basket could not be better provided. Their strong teeth serve as axes to cut down the trees; then their tails serve as trowels for their mason’s work; their fore-feet they use just as we do our hands, and their tails are also employed as little carts or wheelbarrows.”
“Pray go on, Malachi,” said Mary; “I am quite interested already.”
“Well, miss, I have known these little creatures as they are, raise banks four or five hundred paces in length, and a matter of twenty feet high in some parts, besides being seven or eight feet thick; and all in one season,—perhaps five or six mouths’ work.”
“But how many of them do you reckon, are at the work?” said Henry.
“Perhaps a hundred; not more, I should say.”
“Well; but how do they raise these banks, Malachi?” said Emma.
“There, miss, they shew what sense they have. I’ve often watched them when they have been sawing through the large trees with the front teeth; they could not carry the tree, that’s sartain, if the whole of them were to set to work, so they always pick out the trees by the banks of the stream, and they examine how the trees incline, to see if they will fall into the stream; if not, they will not cut them down; and when they are cutting them down, and they are nearly ready for falling, if the wind should change and be against the fall, they will leave that tree till the wind will assist them. As soon as the trees are down, they saw off the branches and arms, and float the log down to where the dam is to be made; they lay them across, and as they lay them one upon the other, of course the water rises and enables them to float down and place the upper ones. But before that, as soon as the lower logs are in their places, the animals go and fetch long grass and clay, which they load upon their flat tails, and drag to the dam, filling up the holes between the timber till it is as strong as a wall, and the water is completely stopped.”
“Yes,” said Martin; “I have heard them at night working away so hard, and flapping and spattering with their tails, that I could imagine there were fifty men at work instead of a hundred of those small animals, but they work by day and by night, and never seem tired, till the dam is sound and their work is complete.”
“But the raising of the dam is only preparatory, is it not, to their building their own houses?” observed Mrs Campbell.