In Beaver World
Enos Mills
In Beaver World is a book written by
Enos Mills that includes an in depth analysis of the way beavers live. Mills spent twenty seven years examining and
researching beavers throughout the United States, Mexico and even Canada and
Alaska. This research all began when he
was growing up as a boy in Colorado and came upon a colony of beavers. Mills became very intrigued with beavers and
decided to spend an entire autumn studying beavers. He picked autumn in order to see how beavers
prepare for the winter, however after his first research he began studying
beavers during all seasons on the year.
Mills believes that beavers deserve more literary attention because of
how valuable studying beavers can be. He
believes that beavers are very useful, skillful, and practical which allows
humanity to learn a lot by studying the beaver.
In
Mills’ book he includes thirteen chapters covering a majority of his
research. The book begins with an in
depth physical description of beavers from their teeth to their tail. After a physical description the book follows
with the chapter “Our Friend The Beaver”, which includes a more in dept look at
how friendly beavers truly are. Mills
believes that beavers can be easily domesticated and are very peaceful animals
and only fight when in extreme danger.
Through his many experiences with beavers and the many beaver friends
that Mills has acquired through the years.
A
beaver book would not be complete without an in dept look at beaver dams. Mills goes into great detail about beaver
dams and how they are constructed.
Beavers use their sharp front teeth and strong jaw muscles to cut down
trees for the dam. Beavers also have the
ability to drag logs over twice their body weight in order to build their
dams. The logs and sticks are placed
parallel with the water with the back end of the stick about a foot or two
lower than the end of the stick facing the water. Beavers build dams in order to control water
depth in order to move safely and use the deep water as refuge from predators. Near the dam the beavers will built their
houses. Mills believes that beaver
houses show how smart and skillful beavers can be. Their houses are typically made out of sticks
and covered with mud in order to protect themselves from predators. Mills follows the description of beaver houses
with a look into beaver engineering which shows his views on why beaver dams
and houses are so efficient. He ends the
book declaring that beavers are the original conservationist because of the
many things they do to help the environment.
