Shaggycoat: The Biography of a Beaver

by Mrs. Molesworth

  CHAPTER VII

  LIFE IN THE WATER WORLD

  We have followed the fortunes of Shaggycoat so long that the reader willbe interested to know just how he looked, as he swam away into his waterworld on this warm spring morning.

  He was three years old and his weight was already about thirty-fivepounds. When he was fully grown, he would weigh fifty-five or possiblysixty pounds. His length was about forty inches, and he would add fiveor six more to it before he got his full size.

  His head and body would then be two feet and three quarters or threefeet of his length, and the other foot would be the queerest kind of apaddle shaped tail you ever saw. It was five inches broad at the widestplace, and instead of being covered with fur, like the rest of thebeaver's body, it was covered with a tough, scaly skin, that gave itquite a fishy look.

  It was believed by the ancients that the beaver's tail was fish, and therest of him was flesh, thus it was lawful to eat the beaver's tail onfast days, when they could not eat meat.

  If Shaggycoat had lifted his head out of the water and looked at you ashe swam, you would have seen that it was rather small and flat, and thathis ears which were small even for the head, nestled down in his fur sothat they could hardly be noticed. If you could have examined himnear-by, you would have seen that the entrance of each ear was guardedby a fur-covered water pad, which the beaver can close at will and keepthe water from his ears. This is very important as he lives so much ofthe time in the water.

  The fact is noticeable all through nature, and particularly in the studyof animals, that whenever an animal has need for a peculiar organ, or apeculiar sense, it has been given him.

  Sometimes, it is a specially warm coat to shield him from the cold, asin the case of the beaver or otter. Again it will be a long bill, withwhich to bore in the mud for worms, like that which whistle-wing, thewoodcock, possesses; or perhaps it is a stout beak, which can bore intothe heart of oak or maple, as the woodpecker does. Wherever there is apeculiar need in nature, there is always a peculiar organism to supplyit.

  Shaggycoat's fore paws were very short and were held well up under himas he swam. He rarely used them in the water except to hold things in,so they were used more like hands than feet. But his hind legs were longand stout, and they worked away like the screw upon a steamboat, as hemoved easily along through the water. His hind feet were also webbed,which gave more resistance, while the legs were set high up on the body,and the stroke was given at an angle, which gave him greater power andsweep. He was altogether a wonderful animal built specially forswimming.

  His front teeth were shovel-shaped, two upon each jaw. They cametogether like wire cutters, and whatever was between them was severed.An alder stick an inch in diameter was severed at a single bite, andsmall saplings came down in a few seconds.

  You may wonder what Shaggycoat saw as he loitered by lake and stream,now skirting a noisy waterfall or turbulent rapids and now loitering ina deep pool. It was a most wonderful world, full of strange creaturesand fishes, and the shores of the rivers were frequented by manycreatures.

  Water is the first necessity with which to sustain life, and lakes andsprings are the drinking places of the wild creatures, as well as thehome of many of them.

  With the fishes that swam in the stream, Shaggycoat was well acquainted,but he rarely molested them and never ate them as the otter did,preferring bark or lily bulbs, for he was a vegetarian.

  A beautiful sight that he frequently saw was a lot of salmon jumping alow fall to the pool above. There would be a ripple and a splash, ashower of water would be thrown up, and the sunlight would break into amyriad rainbow hues, and the silver gleam of the fish would glint for amoment in the light. Then there would be a big splash and anotherrainbow in the pool above and the salmon was gone, and the way was clearfor the next one.

  Sometimes, Osprey, the great fish-hawk of the Atlantic seaboard (alsocalled in Florida the gray fishing eagle) would come sailingmajestically by.

  Frequently he uttered his piercing fisherman's cry as he flew.Occasionally, he would almost pause in mid-air, giving just enoughmotion to his wings to steady himself, then down he would come like afalling star, cleaving the water easily and when he appeared a second ortwo later, a fish was usually dangling from his talons. Sometimes, itwas a sucker, or chub, or if he had been unusually successful, it mightbe a pickerel or trout.

  When he came up, there was always a great shower of water. This when thesunlight played upon it made him look like a bird of wondrous plumage,but, when he had shaken off the water, he was just the plain fish-hawk,though magnificent in flight.

  Another smaller fisherman was the queer blue and white kingfisher whocaught his fish in his beak instead of his claws. He did not make agreat plunge like the fish-hawk when he went fishing, but skimmed alongclose to the water, and plunged under suddenly and was up again in asecond.

  He was a comparatively small bird, so had to content himself with smallfish.

  Then there was Blue-coat, the frog catcher, who could wade easily in afoot of water, his legs being so long and slender. He looked more like abird on stilts than one on his natural legs, and his beak, which wasmade especially for frog catching, was long and strong.

  He might be seen stepping daintily in some shallow near the shore wherethere were plenty of lily pads and water grasses. He was very cautiousin his movements so as not to scare his victim. He would stand for fiveminutes on one leg, if he suddenly discovered a frog that he was afraidof scaring, then his long neck would suddenly shoot out. When he drew uphis head, a frog would be seen kicking in his bill. He would thenhammer the frog on a rock, or spear him with his bill, until life hadleft him, when he would hide the catch upon the bank and return to hissport.

  At dawn and twilight, Shaggycoat frequently saw flocks of ducks and wildgeese feeding upon water grasses in sheltered coves. Some of them pickedaway at things above the water, but others would dive head first andcome up bringing a choice bit of grass.

  Once a couple of half-grown muskrats were playing in a shallow, chasingeach other about in high glee, when the ugly head of a water-snake shotout, and jaws that gripped like death closed upon the young rat'sthroat. There was a short struggle under water and then a few bubblesfloated to the surface and the musquash had been done for. A few momentslater Shaggycoat saw the snake swallowing his breakfast on an island inthe middle of the stream.

  These and other experiences taught the young beaver to always be on thewatch and distrust things that seemed strange to him.

  The buck drank in the river, and the pretty doe, lank and half starvedfrom suckling her fawn, ate ravenously of the lily pads in the shallowwater.

  One evening, just at twilight, thoughts of Brighteyes and the babybeavers had so haunted Shaggycoat that he had turned his nose homewardwhen a peculiar object came round the bend in the stream and on towardthe pool where the beaver was playing. It came like a duck, but it waslarger than many ducks, and it had two wings, like the fish-hawk, whichrose and fell regularly, with a splash of water each time.

  There was a buck drinking in the opposite side of the pool from thebeaver, and he, too, saw the strange, bright bird that sailed like aduck with wings that splashed in the water. Then a bright flame leapedup, and a roar like thunder resounded across the waters, and rolled awayinto the distant foothills. The buck snorted, gave a mighty leap, andfell midway in the stream, kicking and thrashing, like a frenzied thing.

  THE BUCK GAVE A MIGHTY LEAP AND FELL MIDWAY IN THESTREAM]

  All this was strange and terrible to the beaver, who had never heardsuch thunder, or seen such deadly lightning before, so, without waitingto see more, he fled down stream and hid under the first shelving bankthat offered him a hiding-place.

  There he lay very still for several hours, but when he ventured out, itwas quite dark, and the stranger had gone.

  It was man with his deadly "thunderstick," and even the strong buck,with the feet of the wind had been as helpless when it spoke, as hislittle dappled fa
wn would have been in the same plight.

  Shaggycoat never forgot the scene, or the roar of the "thunderstick,"and the scent of the strange creature seemed to linger in his nostrilsfor days. He had seen enough of this strange and terrible water worldfor one summer, and would seek his pond, and Brighteyes.