Our 'lodge' was fifteen miles above the mouth of the stream.

The principal animals, which the country afforded, were red deer (wapiti), the common American deer, the bear, racoon, beaver, and marten.
"The beaver feeds in preference on young wood of the birch, aspen, and poplar tree[6]; but, in defect of these, on any other tree, those of the pine and fir kinds excepted.

These latter it employs only for building its dams and houses.

In wide meadows, where no wood is to be found, it resorts, for all its purposes, to the roots of the rush and water lily.

It consumes great quantities of food, whether of roots or wood; and hence often reduces itself to the necessity of removing into a new quarter.