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BEAVER DAM 461 BECHUANALAND across the trunks of the trees which it requires for its engineering schemes. The hind feet are webbed, and one of the five toes has a double nail. The tail is flattened horizontally, and covered with scales. Large glandular pouches secrete an odoriferous substance called casto- reum. The castor fiber exists through the temperate and colder parts of this country. practicing the turner's trade, he acquired a practical knowledge of the difficulties and disabilities of the workingmen. He settled in Leipsic in 1860, joined vari- ous labor organizations, and became one of the editors of the "Volks- staat" and of the "Vorwarts." Membei-- ship in the North German Reichstag was followed by his election to the German Reichstag, of which he was a member BEAVER BEAVER DAM, a city in Wisconsin, in Dodge co. It is on the Chicago, Mil- waukee and St. Paul, and the Chicago and Northwestern railroads. It is the center of an extensive agricultural re- gion and has excellent water power. Its industries include fk>ur and woolen mills, the manufacture of machinery, stoves, etc. There are parks, a library, a hos- pital, an opera house, and Wayland Academy. Pop. (1910) 6,758; (1920) 7,992. BEAVER DAM, a dam built by a beaver across a stream likely to run off in summer. It is generally formed of drift wood, green willows, birch, poplars, and similar materials. BEAVER FALLS, a borough in Beaver CO., Pa., on the Beaver river, near its junction with the Ohio, and on the Penn- sylvania and New York Central rail- roads, 7 miles N. of Beaver, the county- seat. It has natural gas; good water power for manufacturing; produces steel, iron, wire, glass ware, pottery, shovels, etc. It is the seat of Geneva College (Reformed Presbyterian). Pop. (1910) 12,191; (1920) 12,802. BEBEL, FERDINAND AUGUST (ba'bel), a German Socialist, born in Cologne in 1840. In his youth he was an apprentice, and, while learning and from 1871 to 1881, and which he entered again in 1883. He was the leader of his party in the Reichstag, even though, rep- resenting as he did the Marxian princi- ples, he was bitterly opposed by certain factions. He wrote "Our Aims" (1874) ; "The German Peasant War" (1876) ; "The Life and Theories of Charles Four- ier" (1888) ; "Women in Socialism, the Christian Point of View in the Woman Question" (1893); "My Life" (1910- 1912). He died August 14, 1913. BECHUANALAND, an extensive tract in South Africa, inhabited by the Bech- uanas, extending from 28° S. lat. to the Zambezi, and from 20° E. long, to the Transvaal border. Until 1895 Bechuana- land included the Crown Colony of Brit- ish Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. In that year the Crown Colony was annexed to Cape Colony, and the Protectorate placed under the admin- istration of the High Commissioner. The Protectorate has an area of about 275,000 square miles; and extends from the Molopo river in the S. to the Zambezi in the N., and is bounded on the E. by the Transvaal province and Matabeleland, and on the W. by Southwest Africa. Pop. about 125,000. Bechuanaland is a portion of an ele- vated plateau 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, and, though so near the tropics, is suitable for the British