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.
These consist of a pair of beavers and their young, and sometimes the
young of one or more of these, but the Indians say that it is rare to
find more than twelve beavers living together, in the same lodge, because
the lodge is not large enough to accommodate more than that number
comfortably. From two to five young beavers are born at one time, and
when they are two years old, by which time they are almost full-grown,
they are not allowed to continue any longer in the parent lodge, but have
to go out into the world, to find mates and make lodges for themselves.
This, at least, is what the Indians say, and no doubt it must be so, in
the greater number of cases. Still as a family of five young beavers,
with the two parents, would only make seven in all, and as sometimes
more than seven beavers are found living together in one lodge, it seems
plain that in these cases some of the young beavers must have stayed in
the home circle a little longer, and brought their mates there to live
with them. Probably the numbers are in accordance with the size of the
interior chamber, for if a beaver felt uncomfortable in his lodge, he
would, no doubt, leave it, as we should leave our house or lodgings, but
without giving any notice. As I say, the floor of the beaver-house is of
mud, but round the outer border of it, next to the wall, the beavers lay
down grass, which they use, both to sleep on and also to make nests for
their young. The latter are nourished, for six weeks, by their mother,
after which, and for the rest of their lives, they live principally on
bark. It is not the thick bark, at the base of the trunks of trees, that
beavers like, but that which clothes the smaller limbs, for this is both
tenderer and more nutritious. This is one great reason for the cutting
down of trees, so that the beaver was, no doubt, a tree-feller before
he came to be a dam-builder, for food comes first, both with men and
animals, and houses and engineering works afterwards.
It might be thought that, as there are trees to be felled both in summer
and winter, the beaver, though he does not hibernate, would find no more
difficulty in procuring food in the one season than in the other, so
that it would not be necessary for him to store up a supply of it, for
winter consumption, either in his lodges or at the bottom of his pond. In
reality, however, there are difficulties, and “they are compelled,” says
Mr. Morgan, “to provide a store of subsistence for the long winters of
the north, during which their ponds are frozen over, and the danger of
venturing upon the land is so largely increased as to shut them up, for
the most part, in their habitations.” Mr. Morgan does not tell us what
these dangers are, but no doubt he is referring to various predaceous
animals, such as lynxes, pumas, gluttons, and particularly wolves, all
of which, by reason of their own difficulties in procuring food, become
more ravenous in the winter, and would, no doubt, hail a beaver, away
from his lodge, with delight, and hasten to supply his temporary want,
with an interior chamber of their own. “In preparing for the winter,” Mr.
Morgan continues, “their greatest efforts in tree-cutting are made. They
commence in the latter part of September, and continue through October
and into November the several employments of cutting and storing their
winter food and of repairing their lodges and dams. Part of this winter
supply the beaver, as we have seen, brings into his dwelling, and for
this purpose he makes a special entrance to it, which facilitates his
doing so. Beaver-lodges are always situated on the edge of the water, and
it is by diving under water that the beaver goes in and out of them. The
lodge enters the water at one point, and, within the space conterminous
with it, there are two or more entrances, which open out beneath its
surface at a sufficient depth for the water not to be frozen during the
winter; since, if this were the case, the inmates would perish, the walls
being, at this time, too hard and solid even for a beaver’s teeth. These
entrances are made,” says Mr. Morgan, “with great skill and in the most
artistic manner. In new lodges there is generally but one, but others
are added, with their increase in size, under the process of repairing,
until in large lodges there are sometimes three or four. These entrances
are of two kinds, one straight and the other sinuous. The first we shall
call ‘the wood entrance,’ from the beavers’ evident design to facilitate
the admission into their chamber of the wood-cuttings upon which they
subsist, during the season of winter. These cuttings are of such size
and length that such an entrance is absolutely necessary for their free
admission into the lodge. The other, which we shall call ‘the beaver
entrance’” (not a very good name, I think, as the wood does not enter by
itself) “is the ordinary one for the exit and return of the animal.” As
far as I can understand from reading Mr. Morgan’s book, the floor of the
lodge is extended down, from the point where it touches the water, in a
slanting line to the bottom; but whether the wall goes down all the way
with it, and whether the entrances run right through the wall or only
just underneath it, is not very easy to make out, either from the plates
or the description. They apparently come up through the floor of the
lodge, though even that is not quite easy to make out from the plates,
though these are evidently intended to make things very plain. My own
opinion is that nobody will quite know what a beaver-lodge is like, or
how its entrances are arranged, until he has seen it for himself.
Some beavers make a trench all round their huts, and let the water from
the pond run into it. Then they make one passage out into the water of
this trench, and another into that of the pond. Mr. Wood, in speaking
of the beaver-lodges, tells us that “they are nearly circular in form,
and much resemble the well-known snow-houses of the Esquimaux, being
domed, and about half as high as they are wide, the average height being
three feet, and the diameter six or seven feet. These are the interior
dimensions, the exterior measurement being much greater on account of the
great thickness of the walls, which are continually strengthened with
mud and branches, so that, during the severe frosts, they are nearly as
hard as solid stone. All these precautions, however,” he goes on to say,
“are useless against the practised skill of the trappers. Even in winter
time the beavers are not safe. The hunters strike the ice smartly, and
judge by the sound whether they are near an aperture. As soon as they
are satisfied, they cut away the ice and stop up the opening, so that if
the beavers should be alarmed they cannot escape into the water. They
then proceed to the shore, and by repeated soundings trace the course
of the beaver’s subterranean passage, which is sometimes eight or ten
yards in length, and by watching the various apertures are sure to catch
the beavers. This is not a favourite task with the hunters, and is never
undertaken as long as they can find any other employment, for the work is
very severe, the hardships are great, and the price which they obtain for
the skins is now very small.” I heartily wish it were nothing, for then
this most interesting and intelligent animal would not be in danger of
extermination, as I fear it is now.
The greater number of men and women are, unfortunately, quite callous
in regard to what is done to wild animals. They do not see that it is
a crime to rob a _being_ of its life—only a _human_ being; though the
distinction, nowadays, is one without a difference. To read, first, of
what the beavers do, and then of what we do to them, ought to upset one
more than the fall of a ministry, or people in one’s pew—but it doesn’t.
Besides his lodge, or hut, the beaver has his burrow, and there are some
beavers which only use their burrows to live in, and do not make a hut
at all. The European beaver is now, unfortunately, almost extinct, at
least in civilised Europe, but where it does still exist it is not often
known to practise house-building. It could hardly have done so in ancient
times, since Pliny, the Roman naturalist, who describes its habits, says
nothing about this one. He would have done so, we may be sure, had he
known of its existence, and as he was a most eager inquirer, and beavers
were common enough in Europe then, he could have had no difficulty in
finding out all about them, even if he had not been able to study them
for himself. The European beaver, therefore, is in the same state as
those American beavers which do not make huts, but just as these latter
are exceptional in America, so a few beavers here have been seen making
huts, like the American ones. The habit, no doubt, has been gradually
evolved, and may have begun by some beavers driving their passages so
far through the bank in an upward direction, that at last they broke
through the surface, and had to be covered in. It is a curious fact that
man, in very early times, lived in caves, and after that made a sort of
house underground—a burrow, in fact—so that his habitations may have gone
through the same process of development as have those of the beavers—only
with him it has been carried a little farther.
Beavers that do not build houses are called by the French-Canadian
trappers _paresseux_, or idlers. Such individuals do not make dams
either, for they live by large and deep rivers, whose course it would be
impossible for them to stem. In the banks of these rivers they make their
burrows, and live a more or less solitary life. I have just stated my own
views in regard to these primitive animals, but the Indians have another
way of accounting for them, which has nothing to do with evolution or
development. Their idea is that, after a certain time, the young beavers
are expelled from the family lodge by their parents, who wish them to
marry and have children. If, however, they fail to do this, their parents
receive them back into the lodge again, but make them, as a punishment,
do all the work of repairing the dam. On the following summer they are
sent out again to marry, but if again unsuccessful in their wooing, they
are not received a second time, but are expelled from the community, and
become “outcast beavers.” Thus, according to the Indians—and their story
is, or was, confirmed by the trappers—there are both outcast beavers and
slave-beavers. Ants, as we know, make slaves, and it would be curious if
beavers, which so much resemble ants in their social habits, joined to
their great architectural and engineering skill, were to imitate them,
also, in this the most remarkable of their institutions. We cannot, with
the example of ants before us, say that this is impossible; but no real
evidence of it, as far as I know, has been adduced, unless we take the
belief of the Indians as such; Indians, like other savages, are close
observers of animals, but then, like other savages, they have all sorts
of wild legends and fairy-tales about them, as well.
But this fairy-tale of the slave-beavers—if we consider it as such—is
told not only by the Indians, but by another and very different people
who live right away from them, and whom they could never, in old times,
have seen, unless, indeed, the Arabs discovered America. Six or seven
hundred years ago, an Arabian author, named Kazwini, wrote a work called
the _Wonders of Creation_, and in it he says, “The beaver (kundur) is a
land and water animal that is found in the smaller rivers of the country
Isa. On the banks of these he builds a house, and in it he makes for
himself an elevated place, in the form of a bench; then on the right
hand, about a step lower, one for his wife, and, on the left, one for his
young ones, and, on the lower part of the house, one for his servants.
His dwelling possesses, in the lower part, an egress towards the water,
and another higher one towards the land. If, therefore, an enemy comes
on the water side, or the water rises, he escapes by the egress leading
to the land; but if the enemy comes on the land side, by that which
leads to the water. He nourishes himself on the flesh of fishes and the
wood of the _chelendech_ (? willow). The merchants of that country are
able to distinguish the skins of the servants from those of the masters;
the former hew the _chelendech_ wood for their masters, drag it with
their mouths, and break it in pieces with their foreheads, so that, in
consequence of this office, the hair of the head falls out on the right
and left side. The merchants, who are aware of this fact, recognise in
the hair of the forehead, thus rubbed off, the skin of the servant. In
the skin of the master this mark of recognition is wanting, as he employs
himself with catching fish.”
We do not quite know where the “country of Isa” lay, but beavers, at
that time, were common not only in Europe, and the more northern parts
of Asia—as Siberia—but southwards, in Asia Minor, as well, as far as
to the river Euphrates. It is probably the beavers in these southern
parts, which were nearest to his own country, that this Arabian writer
was thinking of, and we see that he makes the animal build a house. The
probability is that, over such a vast extent of country, the habits of
beavers differed a good deal, as perhaps they do now, in the places where
they still remain.