"BEAVERS may become so domesticated as to answer to their names, and follow those to whom they are accustomed, in the same manner as a dog would do; and they are as much pleased at being fondled as any animal. In cold weather they were kept in my own sitting-room, where they were the constant companions of the Indian women and children, and were so fond of their company, that when the Indians were absent for any considerable time, the Beaver discovered great signs of uneasiness, and on their return, showed equal marks of pleasure, by fondling on them, crawling into their laps, lying on their backs; sitting, erect like a squirrel, and behaving like children who see their parents but seldom."
We have seen that the mole excavates vast hunting grounds under the surface of the earth, where he builds his castle; but the Beaver delights in the water. It is amphibious, that is, it can live in or out of the water. The Beaver is nearly exterminated all over Europe. It is now seven hundred years since it was found in Wales. When first America was discovered it was very numerous along the lakes and rivers, but when the Indians found how much Europeans valued its fine fur skin, they became its inveterate foes, and soon made them almost as scarce in America as in Europe. A few may be seen in some public collections of wild animals, and recently a Scotch nobleman has formed a beaver colony in his park, which will no doubt become an object of great attraction.
The Beaver is a remarkable creature, being part bird, part beast, and part fish. Internally, in some points, it is like a bird. Its tail is covered with scales like a fish; and its feet are webbed like those of a water-fowl.
In the formation of all living creatures how wisely and wonderfully God has fitted them for every condition of life; some for the air, some for the earth; some for the water, and some again, like the Beaver, both for water and land. How surely we may learn useful lessons too from all. These persevering little creatures show us what immense works can be accomplished by a number of small weak things combining their strength and energies for one common end. Beavers spend most of their life in the water, and there they build their houses. But the water must be so deep that the keen frosts of winter will not freeze it to the bottom. If it were not so, some winter morning they would find themselves shut up, close prisoners, and must surely perish of hunger; for the only entrance being under the water, they would find it impossible to cut their way through a solid block of ice. How is such a calamity to be avoided? Well, they are knowing little things, these Beavers, and they can tell exactly to what depth the water will freeze, and if it is not deep enough they do what all little boys are fond of doing, they immediately set to work and construct a dam across the stream, by which they raise the water to its required height.
How you and I would like to have seen several hundreds of these industrious creatures busy at such wonderful work! Of course God has fitted them for what they have to do. A dam must be made of wood, stones, clay and rubbish. God has given them teeth like two sharp chisels, and they can gnaw through a tree six or eight inches thick in a surprisingly short time: and they will so cut through it that it always falls into, or towards the water. Then some will cut it into suited lengths, others will lop off the branches, while others again will float the logs, or carry in their mouths the branches, to the appointed place. Logs and branches, however, would never make a dam, and this they know right well, so off scamper another company in search of stones and clay, which they carry in a marvelous way in their front paws, while they swim with their hind feet and remarkably broad tail. It was once thought that they carried heavy loads of clay on their tails while pushing a log in front, but this has been found quite incorrect. The tail makes both a scull and a rudder, and some say it is used to beat down the clay and stones in building their dams.
The dam, however, is only part of their labor, but a most important one, and in which the whole colony unites. This completed, the construction of houses, or lodges as they are called, is their next employment, and in this they divide up into small companies, each company building its own habitation. These lodges are made of the same materials as the dam, are generally in deep water, and often quite a number will be built together so as to strengthen each other, but each having a separate entrance and no communication between them. The walls are generally about four feet thick, though sometimes even thicker, and are built in the form of an irregular cone. They have each a cavity, measuring about three feet across, in which the Beavers reside. These huts have only one entrance which, as we have said, is always under water, below freezing depth, and on the side farthest from the shore.
Beavers also make holes in the banks, within diving distance of their huts, in which they can rise and breathe, and when they are disturbed at their home, they get into these holes without appearing on the surface of the water. These places of refuge in the banks are called " washes."
The food of the Beaver consists of moist bark and wood, and of a root which is found at the bottom of streams and lakes. The store of food for the winter consists of logs of the willow, birch, and a few other trees. These are stored in the water near the hut to which it belongs, and each family keeps to its own store. God has implanted some very delicate instincts in the Beaver. When at work there are no collisions between the laden little animals, for each has a road for itself and keeps to it. If the dam be built across a quiet stream, it is carried straight across, but if the stream be strong, the dam is made to curve toward the current, so as to offer a greater resistance to it.
In neighbourhoods where the Beaver is hunted it forsakes its habits of building, and contents itself with a modest hole in the hank of a stream, but even then it is easily detected by the branches it leaves about after stripping them of their bark, upon which it feeds. The Beaver has a very fine fur, of a light brown color, and, as I have told you, it is for this beautiful fur it is trapped in great numbers. Until lately this fur was much used as a covering for hats, so much so, indeed, that when I was a boy, all gentlemen's hats, and ladies' riding hats, were called "Beavers."
If it were not for the marks left on the trees, the Beaver would be a most difficult animal to find—when once it leaves off living in a big house, and takes to a hole in the bank—for it remains quietly at home in the daytime and does all its work at night. It has a wonderfully keen scent, and it is able to detect the recent presence of its great enemy, the trapper, very quickly. It is a very peaceable animal, and will always run away rather than fight. It is truly a lover of peace, and well would it be for us to follow its example.
But the mention of examples makes me think of Him who once lived on earth, whose life was a perfect example of all that is lovely and holy and pure. You know well who He was, and you know what was the end of that holy and blessed life—a shameful death, the death of the cross. And why, think you, was he hunted to death? It was because He was so like His Father, God; He made men think of Him; and they did not like that, because conscience told them how unlike and contrary to God were all their thoughts and ways, and so they could not bear to have such a holy One in the world, and they cast him out of it. And the whole world to-day, stands guilty of the murder of the Son of God! Do you ever think, dear children, that the time is coming when God will ask this world what they have done with His Son, whom he sent to be its deliverer? And every one who has not turned to God and confessed his guilt, will be charged with having, with wicked hands, killed the Holy One and the Just. Oh, how solemn is this!