He cut that
stick, thicker than a man's thumb, at a single bite. To cut an alder
having the diameter of a teacup is the work of a minute for the same
tools; and a towering birch tree falls in a remarkably short time when
attacked by three or four beavers. Around the stump of such a tree you
find a pile of two-inch chips, thick, white, clean cut, and arched to
the curve of the beaver's teeth. Judge the workman by his chips, and
this is a good workman.
When the dam is built the beaver cuts his winter food-wood. A colony
of the creatures will often fell a whole grove of young birch or
poplar on the bank above the dam. The branches with the best bark are
then cut into short lengths, which are rolled down the bank and
floated to the pool at the dam.
Considerable discussion has taken place as to how the beaver sinks his
wood--for of course he must sink it, else it would freeze into the ice
and be useless. One theory is that the beavers suck the air from each
stick. Two witnesses declare to me they have seen them doing it; and
in a natural history book of my childhood there is a picture of a
beaver with the end of a three-foot stick in his mouth, sucking the
air out. Just as if the beavers didn't know better, even if the absurd
thing were possible! The simplest way is to cut the wood early and
leave it in the water a while, when it sinks of itself; for green
birch and poplar are almost as heavy as water.
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