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When the dam is finished, the water spreads back, and there is a beautiful woodland lake. Many of the trees which were in the valley will now be standing in the water. This causes them to rot, so that they gradually decay and fall into the lake. It was in this way that the beaver did most of his land-clearing for the white man. He caused a small valley to become flooded by his dam; this rotted the timber, causing it to die; and thus the land was cleared. Then the spring freshets brought down rich mud and plastered it all lover the bottom of the lake.
水坝建好后，水就会回流，形成一个美丽的森林湖泊。从前山谷里的许多树现在都要倒在水里了。这使它们腐烂，逐渐腐烂，掉进湖里。海狸就是用这种方法为白人清地的。他的水坝造成了一个小村庄遭遇洪水；这使木材腐烂，导致死亡；这样地就洁净了。然后春天的洪水带来了丰富的泥，并把泥贴满了湖底。
When the white man came, he trapped and killed the beaver and broke down his dam, causing the water to flow out. Behold, there was his farm all cleared free of timber and enriched by the mud which had been collecting for many years.
白人来了，他困住并杀死了海狸，还破坏了海狸的水坝，导致水流出来。看，那里是他的农场，所有的树木都被伐光了，多年来一直积满了泥土。
When the beaver has finished his dam and it is filled with water, there is usually an island in the woodland lake which he has formed; it is upon such an island that he builds his house. It is cone-shaped and made with a skeleton of sticks or rafters, but the chief building materials used by the beaver are sod and mud. These are plastered very skillfully on the framework. When the house is finished, the little builder lays in his supply of winter food. He goes upstream and cuts many small trees.
当海狸建好他的水坝，水坝充满了水，通常在他所建的林地湖上有一个岛；他就是在这样一个岛上盖房子的。它是锥形的，由木棍或椽子做成的骨架，但是海狸使用的主要建筑材料是草皮和泥土。这些被巧妙地涂在框架上。房子建好后，小建筑工人储备了过冬的食物。并逆流而上砍了许多小树。
