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diff --git a/42282-0.txt b/42282-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22f583e --- /dev/null +++ b/42282-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4079 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42282 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 42282-h.htm or 42282-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42282/42282-h/42282-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42282/42282-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/inbeaverworld00milliala + + + + + +IN BEAVER WORLD + + +-----------------------------------------+ + | By Enos A. Mills | + | | + | IN BEAVER WORLD. Illustrated. | + | THE SPELL OF THE ROCKIES. Illustrated. | + | WILD LIFE ON THE ROCKIES. Illustrated. | + | HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK | + +-----------------------------------------+ + + +[Illustration: BEAVER WORLD] + + +IN BEAVER WORLD + +by + +ENOS A. MILLS + +With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author + + + + + + + +Boston and New York +Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +Mdccccxiii + +Copyright, 1913, by Enos A. Mills +All Rights Reserved + +Published March 1913 + + + + + To J. Horace McFarland + + + + +Preface + + +This book is the result of beaver studies which cover a period of +twenty-seven years. During these years I have rambled through every +State in the Union and visited Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. In the +course of these rambles notice was taken of trees, birds, flowers, +glaciers, and bears, and studious attention devoted to the beaver. No +opportunity for beaver study was missed, and many a long journey was +made for the purpose of investigating the conditions in live colonies +or in making measurements in the ruins of old ones. These +investigations were made during every season of the year, and often a +week was spent in one colony. I have seen beaver at work scores of +times, and on a few occasions dozens at one time. + +Beaver have been my neighbors since I was a boy. At any time during +the past twenty-five years I could go from my cabin on the slope of +Long's Peak, Colorado, to a number of colonies within fifteen +minutes. Studies were carried on in these near-by colonies in spring, +summer, autumn, and winter. + +One autumn my entire time was spent in making observations and +watching the activities of beaver in fourteen colonies. Sixty-four +days in succession I visited these colonies, three of them twice +daily. These daily investigations enabled me to see the preparations +for winter from beginning to end. They also enabled me to understand +details which with infrequent visits I could not have even discovered. +During this autumn I saw two houses built and a number of old ones +repaired and plastered. I also saw the digging of one canal, the +repairing of a number of old dams, and the building of two new ones. +In three of these colonies I tallied each day the additional number of +trees cut for harvest. I saw many trees felled, and noted the manner +in which they were moved by land and floated by water. + +The greater number of the papers in this book were written especially +for it. Parts of the others have been used in my books _Wild Life on +the Rockies_ and _The Spell of the Rockies_. "The Beaver's +Engineering" appeared in the _Saturday Evening Post_, and I am +indebted to _McClure's_ for permission to use "Beaver Pioneers." + +Beaver works are of economical and educational value besides adding a +charm to the wilds. The beaver is a persistent practicer of +conservation and should not perish from the hills and mountains of our +land. Altogether the beaver has so many interesting ways, is so +useful, skillful, practical, and picturesque that his life and his +deeds deserve a larger place in literature and in our hearts. + + E. A. M. + + + + + Contents + + + Working like a Beaver 1 + Our Friend the Beaver 17 + The Beaver Past and Present 37 + As Others See Him 51 + The Beaver Dam 63 + Harvest Time with Beavers 81 + Transportation Facilities 99 + The Primitive House 117 + The Beaver's Engineering 137 + The Ruined Colony 151 + Beaver Pioneers 173 + The Colony in Winter 195 + The Original Conservationist 211 + Bibliographical Note 223 + Index 225 + + + + + Illustrations + + + _Beaver World_ _Frontispiece_ + _A Young Beaver on the side of a Beaver House_ 6 + _A Young Beaver Sunning Himself_ 22 + _In the Harvest-Field_ 32 + _Aspens cut by Beaver._ + _Beaver Ponds_ 42 + _A New Dam_ 66 + _Part of an Old Dam 1040 Feet Long_ 78 + _The Spruce Tree House and Food-Pile, October 12_ 92 + _Lake-Bed Canals at Lily Lake, October, 1911_ 102 + _Section of a 750-foot Canal at Lily Lake_ 102 + _Plan of Beaver Colony on Jefferson River, near + Three Forks, Montana_ 108 + _An Unplastered and a Plastered House_ 124 + _The 334-foot Canal_ 140 + _Plan of Moraine Colony, with Dead-Wood Dam_ 144 + _The Dead-Wood Dam_ 148 + _The Moraine House before and after Enlargement_ 168 + _House in Lily Lake_ 180 + _House, Food-Pile, Pond, and Dam in Winter_ 198 + _Where Beaver formerly lived and spread Soil_ 218 + + + + +Working like a Beaver + + +One September day I saw a number of beaver at work upon a +half-finished house. One part of the house had been carried up about +two feet above the water, and against this were leaned numerous +sticks, which stood upon the top of the foundation just above +water-level. After these sticks were arranged, they were covered with +turf and mud which the beaver scooped from the bottom of the pond. In +bringing this earth covering up, the beaver invariably came out of the +water at a given point, and over a short slide worn on the side of the +house climbed up to the height where they were to deposit their load, +which was carried in the fore paws. Then they edged round and put the +mud-ball upon the house. From this point they descended directly to +the water, but when they emerged with the next handful, they came out +at the bottom of the slide, and again climbed up it. + +The beaver often does a large amount of work in a short time. A small +dam may be built up in a few nights, or a number of trees felled, or +possibly a long burrow or tunnel clawed in the earth during a brief +period. In most cases, however, beaver works of magnitude are +monuments of old days, and have required a long time to construct, +being probably the work of more than one generation. It is rare for a +large dam or canal to be constructed in one season. A thousand feet of +dam is the accumulated work of years. An aged beaver may have lived +all his life in one locality, born in the house in which his parents +were born, and he might rise upon the thousand-foot dam which held his +pond and say, "My grandparents half a dozen centuries ago commenced +this dam, and I do not know which one of my ancestors completed it." + +Although the beaver is a tireless and an effective worker, he does not +work unless there is need to do so. Usually his summer is a rambling +vacation spent away from home. His longest period of labor is during +September and October, when the harvest is gathered and general +preparations made for the long winter. Baby beavers take part in the +harvest-getting, though probably without accomplishing very much. +During most winters he has weeks of routine in the house and ponds +with nothing urgent to do except sleep and eat. + +He works not only tooth and nail, but tooth and tail. The tail is one +of the most conspicuous organs of the beaver. Volumes have been +written concerning it. It is nearly flat, is black in color, and is a +convenient and much-used appendage. It serves for a rudder, a stool, a +prop, a scull, and a signal club. It may be used for a trowel, but I +have never seen it so used. It serves one purpose that apparently has +not been discussed in print; on a few occasions I have seen a beaver +carry a small daub of mud or some sticks clasped between the tail and +the belly. It gives this awkward animal increased awkwardness and even +an uncouth appearance to see him humped up, with tail tucked between +his legs, in order to clasp something between it and his belly. + +He is accomplished in the use of arms and hands. With hands he is able +to hold sticks and handle them with great dexterity. Like any clawing +animal he uses his hands or fore paws, to dig holes or tunnels and to +excavate burrows and water-basins. His hind feet are the chief +propelling power in swimming, although the tail, which may be turned +almost on edge and is capable of diagonal movement, is sometimes +brought into play as a scull when the beaver is at his swiftest. In +the water beaver move about freely and apparently with the greatest +enjoyment. They are delightfully swift and agile swimmers, in decided +contrast with their awkward slowness upon the ground. They can swim +two hundred yards under water without once coming to the surface, and +have the ability to remain under water from five to ten minutes. On +one occasion a beaver remained under water longer than eleven minutes, +and came to the top none the worse, apparently, for this long period +of suspended breathing. + +It is in standing erect that the beaver is at his best. In this +attitude the awkwardness and the dull appearance of all-fours are +absent, and he is a statue of alertness. With feet parallel and in +line, tail at right angles to the body and resting horizontally on the +ground, and hands held against the breast, he has the happy and +childish eagerness of a standing chipmunk, and the alert and +capable attitude of an erect and listening grizzly bear. + +[Illustration: A YOUNG BEAVER ON THE SIDE OF A BEAVER HOUSE] + +The beaver is larger than most people imagine. Mature male specimens +are about thirty-eight inches in length and weigh about thirty-eight +pounds, but occasionally one is found that weighs seventy or more +pounds. Ten mature males which I measured in the Rocky Mountains +showed an average length of forty inches, with an average weight of +forty-seven pounds. The tails of these ten averaged ten inches in +length, four and a half inches in width across the centre, and one +inch in thickness. Behind the shoulders the average circumference was +twenty-one inches, and around the abdomen twenty-eight. Ten mature +females which I measured were only a trifle smaller. + +There are twenty teeth; in each jaw there are eight molars and +two incisors. The four front teeth of the beaver are large, +orange-colored, strong, and have a self-sharpening edge of enamel. The +ears are very short and rounded. The sense of smell appears to be the +most highly developed of the beaver's senses. Next to this, that of +hearing appears to be the most informational. The eyes are weak. The +hind feet are large and webbed, and resemble those of a goose. The +second claw of each hind foot is double, and is used in combing the +fur and in dislodging the parasites from the skin. The fore paws of +the beaver are handlike, and have long, strong claws. They are used +very much after the fashion in which monkeys use their hands, and +serve a number of purposes. + +The color of the beaver is a reddish brown, sometimes shading into a +very dark brown. Occasional specimens are white or black. The beaver +is not a handsome animal, and when in action on the land he is +awkward. The black skin which covers his tail appears to be covered +with scales; the skin merely has this form and appearance, the scales +do not exist. The tail somewhat resembles the end of an oar. + +The all-important tools of this workman are his four orange-colored +front teeth. These are edge-tools that are adaptable and +self-sharpening. They are set in strong jaws and operated by powerful +muscles. Thus equipped, he can easily cut wood. These teeth grow with +surprising rapidity. If accident befalls them, so that the upper and +the lower fail to bear and wear, they will grow by each other and in a +short time become of an uncanny length. I have found several dead +beaver who had apparently died of starvation; their teeth overlapped +with jaws wide open and thus prevented their procuring food. For a +time I possessed an overgrown tooth that was crescent-shaped and a +trifle more than six inches long. + +Pounds considered, the beaver is a powerful animal, and over a rough +trail will drag objects of twice his own weight or roll a log-section +of gigantic size. Up a strong current he will tow an eighty- or +one-hundred-pound sapling without apparent effort. Three or four have +rolled a one-hundred-and-twenty-pound boulder into place in the dam. +Commonly he does things at opportune times and in the easiest way. His +energy is not wasted in building a dam where one is not needed nor in +constructive work in times of high water. He accepts deep water as a +matter of fact and constructs dams to make shallow places deep. + +Beaver food is largely inner bark of deciduous or broad-leaved trees. +Foremost among these trees which they use for food is the aspen, +although the cottonwood and willow are eaten almost as freely. The +bark of the birch, alder, maple, box-elder, and a number of other +trees is also used. Except in times of dire emergency the beaver will +not eat the bark of the pine, spruce, or fir tree. It is fortunate +that the trees which the beaver fell and use for food or building +purposes are water-loving trees, which not only sprout from both stump +and root, but grow with exceeding rapidity. Among other lesser foods +used are berries, mushrooms, sedge, grass, and the leaves and stalks +of a number of plants. In winter dried grass and leaves are sometimes +used, and in this season the rootstocks of the pond-lily and the roots +of the willow, alder, birch, and other water-loving trees that may be +got from the bottom of the pond. Beaver are vegetarians; they do not +eat fish or flesh. + +Apparently beaver prefer to cut trees that are less than six inches in +diameter, and where slender poles abound it is rare for anything to be +cut of more than four inches. But it is not uncommon to see trees +felled that are from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter. In my +possession are three beaver-cut stumps each of which has a greater +diameter than eighteen inches, the largest being thirty-four inches. +The largest beaver-cut stump that I have ever measured was on the +Jefferson River in Montana, near the mouth of Pipestone Creek. This +was three feet six inches in diameter. + +The beaver sits upright with fore paws against the tree, or clasping +it; half squatting on his hind legs, with tail either extending behind +as a prop or folded beneath him as a seat, he tilts his head from side +to side and makes deep bites into the tree about sixteen inches above +the ground. In the overwhelming majority of beaver-cut trees that I +have seen, most of the cutting was done from one side,--from one seat +as it were. Though the notch taken out was rudely done, it was after +the fashion of the axe-man. The beaver bites above and below, then, +driving his teeth behind the piece thus cut off, will wedge, pry, or +pull out the chip. Ofttimes in doing this he appears to use his jaw +as a lever. With the aspen, or with other trees equally soft, about +one hour is required to gnaw down a four-inch sapling. With one bite +he will snip off a limb from half to three quarters of an inch in +diameter. + +After a tree is felled on land, the limbs are cut off and the trunk is +gnawed into sections. The length of these sections appears to depend +upon the size of the tree-trunk and also the distance to the water, +the number of beaver to assist in its transportation, and the +character of the trail. Commonly a six- or eight-inch tree is cut into +lengths of about four to six feet. If the tree falls into the water of +the pond or the canal, it is, if the limbs are not too long, +transported butt foremost to the desired spot in its uncut, untrimmed +entirety. Ofttimes with a large tree the trunk is left and only the +limbs taken. + +The green wood which the beaver uses for his winter's food-supply is +stored on the bottom of the pond. How does he sink it to the bottom? +There is an old and oft-repeated tale which says that the beaver sucks +the air from the green wood so as to sink it promptly. Another tale +has it that the beaver dives to the bottom carrying with him a green +stick which he thrusts into the mud and it is thus anchored. +Apparently the method is a simple one. The green wood stored is almost +as heavy as water, and once in the pond it becomes water-logged and +sinks in a short time; however, the first pieces stored are commonly +large, heavy chunks, which are forced to the bottom by piling others +on top of them. Frequently the first few pieces of the food-pile +consist of entire trees, limbs and all. These usually are placed in a +rude circle with butts inward and tops outward. This forms an +entangling foundation which holds in place the smaller stuff piled +thereon. + +Most willows by beaver colonies are small and comparatively light. +These do not sink readily, are not easily managed, and are rarely used +in the bottom of the pile. Commonly, when these light cuttings are +gathered into the food-pile, they are laid on top, where numerous +up-thrusting limbs entangle and hold them. The foundation and larger +portion of the food-pile are formed of heavy pieces of aspen, alder, +or some other stream-side tree, which cannot be moved out of place by +an ordinary wind or water-current and which quickly sink to the +bottom. + +Among enemies of this fur-clad fellow are the wolverine, the otter, +the lion, the lynx, the coyote, the wolf, and the bear. Hawks and owls +occasionally capture a young beaver. Beaver spend much time dressing +their fur and bathing, as they are harassed by lice and other +parasites. At rare intervals they are afflicted with disease. They +live from twelve to fifteen years and sometimes longer. Man is the +worst enemy of the beaver. + +A thousand trappers unite to tell the same pitiable tale of a trapped +beaver's last moments. If the animal has not succeeded in drowning +himself or tearing off a foot and escaping, the trapper smashes the +beaver's head with his hatchet. The beaver, instead of trying to rend +the man with sharp cutting teeth, raises himself and with upraised +hand tries to ward off the death-blow. Instead of one blow, a young +trapper frequently has to give two or three, but the beaver receives +them without a struggle or a sound, and dies while vainly trying to +shield his head with both hands. + +Justly renowned for his industry, the beaver is a master of the fine +art of rest. He has many a vacation and conserves his energies. He +keeps his fur clean and his house in a sanitary condition. Ever in +good condition, he is ready at all times for hard work and is capable +of efficient work over long periods. He is ready for emergencies. + +As animal life goes, that of the beaver stands among the best. His +life is full of industry and is rich in repose. He is home-loving and +avoids fighting. His lot is cast in poetic places. + +The beaver has a rich birthright, though born in a windowless hut of +mud. Close to the primeval place of his birth the wild folk of both +woods and water meet and often mingle. Around are the ever-changing +and never-ending scenes and silences of the water or the shore. Beaver +grow up with the many-sided wild, playing amid the brilliant flowers +and great boulders, in the piles of driftwood and among the fallen +logs on the forest's mysterious edge. They learn to swim and slide, to +dive quickly and deeply from sight, to sleep, and to rest moveless in +the sunshine; ever listening to the strong, harmonious stir of wind +and water, living with the stars in the sky and the stars in the pond; +beginning serious life when brilliant clouds of color enrich autumn's +hills; helping to harvest the trees that wear the robes of gold, while +the birds go by for the southland in the reflective autumn days. If +Mother Nature should ever call me to live upon another planet, I could +wish that I might be born a beaver, to inhabit a house in the water. + + + + + +Our Friend the Beaver + + +One bright autumn afternoon I peered down into a little meadow by a +beaver pond. This meadow was grass-covered and free from willows. In +it seven or eight beaver were at work along a new canal. Each kept his +place and appeared to have a section in which he did his digging. For +more than half an hour I watched them clawing out the earth and +grass-roots and lifting it out in double handfuls and piling it in an +orderly line along the canal-bank. While I was watching a worker at +one end of this line, two others clinched in a fight. The fighters +made no sound except a subdued guttural mumbling as they rolled about +in a struggle. The other workers, to my astonishment, paid not the +slightest attention to this fight, but each attended to his own +affairs. After two or three minutes the belligerents broke away; one +squatted down breathing heavily, while the other, with bloody tail, +dragged himself off and plunged into the pond. This was the first +beaver fight that I had ever seen. + +Beaver may well be called the silent workers. No matter how numerous, +or crowded, or busy they are, their work goes on without a word and +apparently without a sign. Although I have seen them at work scores of +times, in the twilight and in the daylight, singly, in pairs, and by +the dozens, doing the many kinds of work which beaver perform, yet +this work has always gone quietly and without any visible evidences of +management. Each one is capable of acting independently. Since the +quality of his work improves as the beaver increases his experience, +it appears natural and probable that each colony of beaver has a +leader who plans and directs the work. I am familiar with a number of +instances which strongly indicate leadership. In times of emergency, +when an entire colony is forced to emigrate, a beaver--and usually an +aged one--takes the lead, and wherever he goes the others willingly +follow. + +Whatever may have been the custom of beaver in the past, at present +large numbers sometimes coöperate in accomplishing community work. It +used to be believed, and possibly it was true, that only the members +of a family, or the beaver of one house, united in doing the general +work of the colony. It was a common belief that seven beaver inhabited +a house; perhaps eight was the number of the Rocky Mountain region. At +the present time the number in a house is from one to thirty. + +Beaver have been driven from most of the streams and lake-shores, and +now maintain themselves with difficulty in the places which they +inhabit. In surviving they probably have had to sacrifice a few old +customs and to adopt some new ones, and it is likely that these +changes sometimes call for larger houses so as to care for the +increased number of beaver which conditions now compel to live in one +locality. A number of instances have come under my notice where beaver +were driven from their colony either by fire or by the aggressiveness +of trappers; these moved on to other scenes, where they cast their lot +with the beaver of another colony, and apparently were received with +every welcome. Immediately after the arrival of the immigrants, +enlargements were at once commenced, apparently to accommodate the +new-comers permanently. + +One autumn, while following the Lewis and Clark trail with a pack +horse in western Montana, I made camp one evening with a trapper who +gave me a young beaver. He was about one month old, and ate twigs and +bark as naturally as though he had long eaten them. I named him +"Diver," and in a short time he was as chummy as a young puppy. Of an +evening he played about the camp and often swam in the near-by water. +At times he played at dam-building, and frequently displayed his +accomplishment of felling wonderful trees that were about the size of +a lead pencil. He never failed to come promptly when I whistled for +him. At night he crouched near my camp, usually packing himself under +the edge of the canvas on which I spread my bedding. Atop the pack on +the horse's back he traveled,--a ride which he evidently enjoyed. He +was never in a hurry to be taken off, and at moving time he was always +waiting eagerly to be lifted on. As soon as he noticed me arranging +the pack, he came close, and before I was quite ready for him, he +rose up, extending his hands in rapid succession beggingly, and with a +whining sort of muttering pleaded to be lifted at once to his seat on +the pack. + +[Illustration: A YOUNG BEAVER SUNNING HIMSELF] + +He had a bad fright one evening. About one hour before sundown we had +encamped as usual alongside a stream. He entered the water and after +swimming about for a time, taking a dozen or so merry dives, he +crossed to the opposite side. In plain view, only fifty feet away, I +watched him as he busily dug out roots of the Oregon grape and then +stopped leisurely to eat them. While he was thus engaged, a coyote +made a dash for him from behind a boulder. Diver dodged, and the +coyote missed. Giving a wail like a frightened child, my youngster +rolled into the stream and dived. Presently he scrambled out of the +water near me and made haste to crawl under my coat-tail behind the +log on which I sat. + +The nearest beaver pond was a quarter of a mile upstream, yet less +than five minutes had elapsed from the time of Diver's cry when two +beaver appeared, swimming low and cautiously in the stream before me. +A minute later another came in sight from downstream. All circled +about, swimming cautiously with heads held low in the water. One +scented the place where the coyote had attacked Diver, and waddled out +and made a sniffing examination. Another came ashore at the spot where +Diver came out to me. Apparently his eyes told him I was a part of the +log, but his nose proclaimed danger. After three or four hesitating +and ineffectual attempts to retreat, he plucked up courage and rose to +full height on hind legs and tail to stare eagerly at me. With head +well up and fore paws drooping, he held the gaze for several seconds +and then gave a low whistle. + +At this, Diver came forth from behind my coat to see what was going +on. The old one started forward to meet him, but on having a good look +at me whirled and made a jumping dive into the water, whacking the +surface with his tail as he disappeared. Instantly there followed two +or more splashes and a number of tail-whacks upon the water, as though +a beaver rescue party were beating a retreat. + +At the end of my outing Diver became the pet of two pioneer children +on the bank of the Snake River. He followed the children about and +romped with them. At three years of age he was shot by a visiting +hunter. + +My experience with Diver and other beaver pets leads me to believe +that beaver are easily domesticated. One morning in northern Idaho, +the family with whom I had spent the night took me out to see a beaver +colony that was within a stone's throw of their fireplace. Three +beaver came out of the water within ten feet of us to eat scraps of +bread which the children threw on the grass for them. + +One day I placed myself between three young beaver, who were eating on +land, and the river out of which they came. They were on one of the +rocky borders of the Colorado River in the depths of the upper Grand +Cañon. They attempted to get by me, but their efforts were not of the +"do or die" nature. Presently their mother came to the rescue and +attempted to attract my attention by floating in the water near me in +a terribly crippled condition. I had seen many birds and a few beaver +try that clever ruse; so I allowed it to go on, hoping to see another +act. Another followed. + +In it an old male beaver appeared. He swam easily downstream until +within a few yards of me and then dived, apparently frightened. But +presently he reappeared near by and dived again. While I was watching +him, the youngsters edged a few yards nearer the river. To stop them +and prolong the exhibition, I advanced close to them as though to grab +them. At this the mother beaver struggled out of the water and set up +a tumbling and rolling so close to me that I thought to catch her for +examination. She dodged right and left and reached the water. While +this was going on, the youngsters escaped into the river. Mother +beaver instantly recovered, and as she dived gave the water a scornful +whack with her tail. + +The beaver is not often heard. He works in silence. When he pauses +from his work, he sits meditatively, like a philosopher. At times, +however, when, in traveling, beaver are separated from one another, +they give a strange shrill whistle or call. Occasionally this whistle +appears to be a call of alarm, suspicion, or warning. Sometimes when +alarmed, a young beaver gives a shrill and frightened cry not unlike +that of a lost human child. On a few occasions I have heard, while +listening near a beaver house in the early summer, something of a +subdued concert going on inside, a purring, rhythmic melody. They have +a kind of love ditty also. This is a rhythmic murmur and sigh, very +appealing, and it seems strangely elemental as it floats across the +beaver pond in the twilight. + +It is probable that beaver mate for life. All that is known concerning +their ways indicates that they are good parents. The young are usually +born during the month of April. The number varies from one to eight; +probably four is the number most common. A short time before the birth +of the youngsters, the mother invites the father to leave, or compels +him to do so,--or he may go voluntarily,--and she has possession of +the house or burrow, probably alone, at the time the youngsters are +born. Their eyes are open from the beginning, and in less than two +weeks they appear in the water accompanied by the mother. Often I +have investigated beaver colonies endeavoring to determine the number +of youngsters at a birth. Many times there were four of these furry, +serious little fellows near the house on a log that was thrust up +through the water. At other times from one to eight youngsters sunned +themselves on the top of the rude home. + +One May, in examining beaver colonies, I saw three sets of youngsters +in the Moraine Colony. They numbered three, and two, and five. One +mother in another colony proudly exhibited eight, while still another, +who had been harassed all winter by trappers and who lived in a burrow +in the bank, could display but one. + +It is not uncommon for young orphan beavers to be cared for and +adopted by another mother beaver. I have notes of three mothers who, +with children of their own, at once took charge of orphans left by the +death of a neighbor. One June a mother beaver was killed near my camp. +Her children escaped. The following evening a new mother, with four +children of her own adopted them and moved from her own home, a +quarter of a mile distant, to the home of her dead neighbor and there +brought all the youngsters up. + +Beaver have great fun while growing up. Posted on the edge of the +house, they nose and push each other about, ofttimes tumbling one +another into the water. In the water they send a thousand merry +ripples to the shore, as they race, wrestle, and dive in the pond. +They play on the house, in the pond, and in the sunshine and shadows +of the trees along the shore. + +Beaver are mature the third summer of their lives, and at this time +they commonly leave the parental home, pair, and begin life for +themselves. There are stories to the effect that the parents of the +youthful home-builders accompany the children to new scenes, help them +select a building-site, and assist in the construction of the new +house and dam. After this the parents return home. This probably is +occasionally true. Anyway I once saw this program fairly well carried +out, and at another time in a limited manner. + +The beaver is practical, peaceful, and industrious. He builds a +permanent house and keeps it clean and in repair. Beside it he stores +food-supply for the long winter. He takes thought for the morrow. +These and other commendable characteristics give him a place of honor +among the hordes of homeless, hand-to-mouth folk of the wild. During +the winter he has but little to do except bathe and eat his two or +three meals a day from the food he has stored in the autumn. Towards +spring, when his wild neighbors are lean, hungry, and cold, he is fat +and comfortable. In the spring he emerges from the house, but then his +only work is occasionally to cut a twig for food. In the summer he +plays tourist. He visits other colonies, and wanders up and down +streams, going miles from home. In the late summer or early autumn he +returns, makes repairs, and harvests food for winter. + +The beaver is a valuable conservationist, but there are localities in +which he cannot be tolerated. Although dead wood is rarely cut by the +beaver, many a homesteader has been disturbed by his cutting off and +carrying away green fence posts. Recently beaver have returned to a +few localities and got themselves into bad repute by felling fruit +trees. Occasionally, too, in the West, they have lost caste by +persistently damming an irrigation-ditch and diverting the water, +despite the fact that a court has given both the title and the right +to this water to some one else a mile or so down the ditch. + +In all logging operations, beaver never fail--where there is +opportunity--to cut trees upstream and float them down with the +current. Tree-cutting is an interesting phase of beaver life. A beaver +will go waddling dully from the water to a tree he is about to cut +down. All will look about for enemies; one may be wise enough--but the +majority will not do so--to look upward to see if the tree about to be +felled is entangled at the top. All appear to choose a comfortable +place on which to squat or sit while cutting. + +Commonly when the tree begins to creak and settle, the beaver who has +done the cutting thuds the ground a few times with his tail, and then +scampers away, usually going into the water. Sometimes the near-by +workers give the thudding signal in advance of the one who is doing +the cutting. Now and then no warning signal is given, and the logging +beaver occasionally fells his tree upon other workers with a fatal +result. As with axe-men, the beaver doing the cutting is on rare +occasions caught and killed by the tree which he fells. + +Rarely does the beaver give any thought to the direction in which the +tree will fall. In a few instances, however, I have seen what appeared +to be an effort on the part of the beaver to fell a tree in a given +direction. From an uncomfortable place he cut the lowest notch on the +side on which he probably wanted the tree to fall. On one of these +occasions, the aspen tree selected stood in an almost complete circle +of pines. The beaver took pains to cut the first and lowest notch in +this tree directly opposite the opening in the pines. I have seen a +number of instances of this kind. And he will sometimes leave the +windward side of a grove on a windy day, and cut on the leeward, so +that the felled trees are not entangled in falling. + +Rarely does more than one beaver work at the same time at a tree. In +some instances, however, if the tree be large, two or even more beaver +will work at once. But after the tree has been felled, ofttimes +three or four beaver will unite to roll a large section to the water. +In doing this, some may stand with paws against it and push, and +others may put their sides or hips against it. On land, as in the +water, small limb-covered trees are dragged butt foremost so as to +meet the least resistance. Sometimes the beaver drags walking +backwards; at other times he is alongside the tree carrying and +dragging it forward. + +[Illustration: IN THE HARVEST-FIELD Aspens cut by beaver] + +Early explorers say that beaver do most of their work at night. In +this they are practically unanimous. However, in Long's Journal, +written in 1820, beaver were reported at work in broad daylight. A few +other early writers have also mentioned this daylight work. They +probably work in darkness because that is the safest time for them to +be out. During dozens of my visits to secluded localities,--localities +which had not been visited by man, and certainly not by trappers,--I +found beaver freely at work in broad daylight. I am inclined to think +that day work was common during primeval times; and that, although the +beaver now do and long have done most of their work at night, in +localities where they are not in danger from man, they work freely +during daytime. + +Both the Indians and the trappers have a story that old beaver who +will not work are driven from the colony and become morose outcasts, +slowly living away the days by themselves in a burrow. I have no +evidence to verify this statement, and am inclined to think that +solitary beaver occasionally found in abandoned colony-sites and +elsewhere are simply unfortunates, perhaps weighed down with age, +unable to travel far, with teeth worn, the mate dead, without ambition +to try, or without strength to emigrate. It is more likely that these +aged ones voluntarily and sadly withdraw from their cheerful and +industrious fellows, to spend their closing days alone. Although, too, +there were among Indians and trappers stories of beaver slaves, I am +without material for a story of this kind. + +The beaver is peaceful. Although the males occasionally fight among +themselves, the beaver avoids fighting, and plans his life so as to +escape without it. Now and then in the water one closes with an otter +in a desperate struggle, and when cornered on land one will sometimes +turn upon a preying foe with such ferocity and skill that his +assailant is glad to retreat. On two occasions I have known a beaver +to kill a bobcat. + +Beaver are not equally alert. In many cases this difference may be due +to a difference in age or experience. Beaver have been caught with +scars which show that they have been trapped before, a few even having +lost two feet in escaping from traps. On the other hand, skillful +trappers have found themselves after repeated trials, unable to catch +a single beaver from a populous colony. Sometimes in colonies of this +kind, the beaver even audaciously turned the traps upside down or +contemptuously covered them with mud. + +Nor is the work of all beaver alike. The ditches which one beaver +digs, the house one builds, or the dam one makes, may be executed with +much greater speed and with more skill than those of a neighboring +beaver. Many houses are crude and unshapely masses, many dams +haphazard in appearance, while a few canals are crooked and uneven. +But the majority do good work, and are quick to take advantage of +opportunity, quick to adjust themselves to new conditions, or to use +the best means that is available. Beaver probably have made numbers of +changes in their manners, habits, and customs, and those changes +undoubtedly have enabled them to survive relentless pursuit, and to +leave descendants upon the earth. + +The industry of the beaver is proverbial, and it is to the credit of +any person to have the distinction of working "like a beaver." Most +people have the idea that the beaver is always at work; not that he +necessarily accomplishes much at this work, but that he is always +doing something. The fact remains that under normal conditions he +works less than half the time, and it is not uncommon for him to spend +a large share of each year in what might be called play. He is +physically capable of intense and prolonged application, and, being an +intelligent worker, even though he works less than half the time he +accomplishes large results. + + + + +The Beaver Past and Present + + +All Indian tribes in North America appear to have had one or more +legends concerning the beaver. Most of these legends credit him with +being a worthy and industrious fellow, and the Cherokees are said to +trace their origin to a sacred and practical beaver. Many of the +tribes had a legend which told that long, long ago the Great Waters +surged around a shoreless world. These waters were peopled with +beaver, beaver of a gigantic size. These, along with the Great Spirit, +dived and brought up quantities of mud and shaped this into the hills +and dales, the mountains where the cataracts plunged and sang, and all +the caves and cañons. The scattered boulders and broken crags upon the +earth were the missiles thrown by evil spirits, who in the beginning +of things endeavored to hinder and prevent the constructive work of +creation. + +The beaver has been found in fossil both in Europe and in America. +Remnants of the dugout and the teeth of beaver, together with rude +stone implements of primitive man, have been found in England. Near +Albany, New York, gnawed beaver wood and the remains of a mastodon +were dug up from about forty feet below the surface in sediment and +river ooze. Fossil beaver were of enormous size. + +Coming down to comparatively modern times, the animal as we now know +him appears to have been distributed over almost all Asia, Europe, and +North America. There was no marked difference in the individuals that +inhabited these three continents. The beaver is probably extinct in +Europe, but in July, 1900, I found a piece of wood floating in the +Seine that had been recently gnawed by a beaver. At this time I was +assured that not even a tame beaver could be found in Europe. It is +still found in parts of Siberia and Central Asia. That form which +inhabits South America is very unlike those in the Northern +Hemisphere, and may be called a link between the muskrat and the +beaver. + +Reference is made to the beaver in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and +Herodotus makes repeated mention of it. Pliny also gives a brief +account of this animal. In Germany, in 1103, the right of hunting +beaver was conferred along with other special hunting privileges; and +a bull of Pope Lucius III, in 1182, gave to a monastery all the beaver +found within the bounds of its property. A royal edict issued at +Berlin in March, 1725, insisted upon the protection of beaver. + +Before the white man came, beaver--_Castor canadensis_--were widely +distributed over North America, perhaps more widely than any other +animal. The beaver population was large, and probably was densest to +the southwest of Hudson Bay and around the headwaters of the Missouri +and Columbia rivers. Their scantiest population areas in the United +States appear to have been southern Florida and the lower Mississippi +Valley. This scantiness is attributed by early explorers to the +aggressiveness of the alligators. All the southern half of Mexico +appears to have been without a beaver population; but elsewhere over +North America, wherever there were deciduous trees and water, and in +a few treeless places where there were only water and grass, the +beaver were found. Along the thousands of smaller streams throughout +North America there was colony after colony, dam after dam, in close +succession, as many as three hundred beaver ponds to the mile. Lewis +and Clark mention the fact that near the Three Forks, Montana, the +streams stretched away in a succession of beaver ponds as far as the +eye could reach. The statements made by the early explorers, settlers, +and trappers, together with my own observations,--which commenced in +1885, and which have extended pretty well over the country from +northern Mexico into Alaska,--lead to the conclusion that the beaver +population of North America at the beginning of the seventeenth +century was upwards of one hundred million. The area occupied was +approximately six million square miles, and probably two hundred +beaver population per square mile would be a conservative number for +the general average. + +In the United States there are a number of counties and more than one +hundred streams and lakes named for the beaver; upwards of fifty +post-offices are plain Beaver, Beaver Pond, Beaver Meadow, or some +other combination that proclaims the former prevalence of this widely +distributed builder. The beaver is the national emblematic animal of +Canada, and there, too, numerous post-offices, lakes, and streams are +named for the beaver. + +[Illustration: BEAVER PONDS] + +Beaver skins lured the hunter and trapper over all American wilds. +These skins were one of the earliest mediums of exchange among the +settlers of North America. For two hundred years they were one of the +most important exports, and for a longer time they were also the chief +commodity of trade on the frontier. A beaver skin was not only the +standard by which other skins were measured in value, but also the +standard of value by which guns, sugar, cattle, hatchets, and clothing +were measured. Though freely used by the early settlers for clothing, +they were especially valuable as raw material for the manufacture of +hats, and for this purpose were largely exported. + +From this animal were prepared many remedies which in former times +were believed to have high medicinal value. Castoreum was the most +popular of these, and from it was compounded the great cure-all. The +skin of the beaver was thought to be an excellent preventive of colic +and consumption; the fat of the beaver efficient in apoplexy and +epilepsy, to stop spasms, and for various afflictions of the nerves. +Powdered beaver teeth were often given in soup for the prevention of +many diseases. The castoreum of the beaver was considered a most +efficient remedy for earache, deafness, headache, and gout, for the +restoring of the memory and the cure of insanity. Next in importance +to its skin, the beaver was valued for the castoreum it yielded. + +The old hunters, trappers, and first settlers forecast with confidence +the weather from the actions of the beaver. This animal was credited +with being weather-wise to a high degree. From his actions the nature +of the oncoming winter was predicted, and plans to meet it were made +accordingly. Faith in the beaver's actions and activities as a basis +for weather-forecasting was almost absolute. If the beaver began work +early, the winter was to begin early. If the beaver laid up a large +harvest, covered the house deeply with mud, and raised the +water-level of the pond, the winter was, of course, to be a long and +severe one. + +Extensive autumn rambles in the mountains with especial attention to +beaver customs compels me to conclude that as a basis for weather +prediction beaverdom is not reliable. In the course of one autumn +month in the mountains of Colorado more than one hundred colonies were +observed. In many colonies work for the winter commenced early. In +others, only a few miles distant, preparations for the winter did not +begin until late. In some, extensive preparations were made for the +winter. In a few the harvest laid up was exceedingly small. Thus in +one month of the same year I saw some beaver colonies preparing for a +long winter and others for a short one, many preparing for a hard +winter and others almost unprepared for winter. From these varied and +conflicting prognostications, how was one accurately to forecast the +coming winter? The old prophets in one colony frequently disagreed +with aged prophets who were similarly situated, but in a neighboring +colony. At one place thirty or more beaver gathered an enormous +quantity of food, sufficient, in fact, to have supplied twice that +number for the longest and most severe winter. The winter which +followed was as mild a one as had passed over the Rocky Mountains in +fifty years. Not one tenth of the big food-pile was eaten. + +I have not detected anything that indicates that the beaver ever plan +for an especially hard winter. Goodly preparations are annually made +for winter. Apparently the extent of the preparation in any colony is +dependent almost entirely upon the number of beaver that are to winter +in that colony. Winter preparations consist of gathering the +food-harvest, repairing and sometimes raising the dam, and commonly +covering the house with a layer of mud. Beaver display forethought, +intelligence, and even wisdom, but being weather-wise is not one of +their successful specialties. Local beaver now and then show unusual +activity, and unusually large supplies are gathered and stored for the +winter. This kind of work appears to be local, not general. The cases +in which unusually large preparations were made for the winter could +have been traced to an increased population of the colony that showed +these activities. On the other hand, colonies with less preparations +one year than on the preceding one probably had suffered a decrease of +population. Increase of population in a beaver colony may be accounted +for through the growing up of youngsters, or by the arrival of +immigrants, or both; where the temporary inactivity of trappers in one +locality might allow the beaver colony in that region to increase in +numbers; or where the beaver population of that colony might be +increased by the arrival of beaver driven from their homes by +aggressive hunters and trappers in adjoining localities. At any rate, +in the beaver world, some colonies each year commence work earlier +than do others, and some colonies make extensive preparations for the +winter, while others make but little preparation. This preparation +appears to be determined chiefly by the number of colonists and the +needs of the colony. + +The beaver hastened, if it did not bring, the settlement of the +country. Hunters and trappers blazed the trails, described the natural +resources, and lured the permanent settlers to possess the land and +build homes among the ruins left by the beaver. Early in the fur +industry companies were formed, the Hudson's Bay Company becoming the +most influential and best known. Its charter was granted by Charles II +of England on the 2d day of May, 1669. This company finally developed +into one of the greatest commercial enterprises that America has ever +known. The skin of the beaver furnished more than half its revenue. +There are many features in the history of this company that have never +been surpassed in any land. For more than two hundred years it held +absolute sway over a country larger than Europe, and for the first one +hundred and fifty years of its existence it was the government of the +territory where it ruled, and thus determined the social and other +standards of life within that territory. One of the early officials of +this company declared that they were on the ground ahead of the +missionaries, and said that the initials "H. B. C." on the banner of +the company might well be interpreted as "Here before Christ." + +Kingsford's History of Canada says that in the eighteenth century, +Canada exported a moderate quantity of timber, wheat, the herb called +ginseng, and a few other commodities, but from first to last she lived +chiefly on beaver skins. Horace T. Martin, formerly Secretary of +Agriculture for Canada, calls the beaver's part in Canadian +development "a subject which has from the inception of civilization +been associated with the industrial and commercial development, and +indirectly with the social life, the romance, and to a considerable +extent with the wars of Canada." + +The American Fur Company and the Northwestern Fur Company were two +large fur-gathering enterprises whose trappers ranged afar and who +left their mark in the history and the development of the Northwest. +The colossal Astor fortune really had its beginning in the wealth +which John Jacob Astor amassed chiefly through the gathering and the +sale of beaver skins. Beaver skins are now economically unimportant in +commerce, but their value has already led to the establishment of a +few beaver farms. + +To-day beaver are apparently extinct over the greater portion of the +area which they formerly occupied, and are scarce over the remaining +inhabited area. Scattered colonies are found in the Rocky Mountains +and in the mountains of the Pacific Coast, and there are localities in +Canada where they are still fairly abundant. In many places in the +Grand Cañon of the Colorado they are common. A few are found in +Michigan and Maine. Some years ago a few brooks in the Adirondacks +were successfully colonized with these useful animals. They have +reappeared in Pennsylvania, and there probably are straggling beaver +all over the United States which, if protected, would increase. + +There is a growing sentiment in favor of allowing the beaver to +multiply. In 1877 Missouri passed a law protecting these animals; so +did Maine in 1885 and Colorado in 1899. Other States to the total +number of twenty-four have also legislated for their protection. The +Canadian government has also passed protective laws. A noticeable +increase has already occurred in a few localities. Beaver multiply +rapidly under protection, as is shown in the National Parks of both +Canada and the United States. + + + + +As Others See Him + + +For three hundred years the beaver has been a popular subject for +discussion. Fabulous accounts have been given concerning his works, +and that which he has done has been exaggerated beyond recognition. +Many of the descriptions of him are grotesque, and many accounts of +his works are uncanny. His tail has been made to do the work of a +pile-driver, and some of the old accounts credit him with driving +stakes into the ground that were as large as a man's thigh and five or +six feet long. Stories have been told that his tail was used as a +trowel in plastering the house and the dam. A few writers have stated +that he lived in a three-story lodge. More than a century ago Audubon +called attention to the enormous mass of fabrications that had been +written concerning this animal, and in 1771 Samuel Hearne of the +Hudson's Bay Company denounced a beaver nature-faker in the following +terms: "The compiler of the Wonders of Nature and Art seems to have +not only collected all the fictions into which other writers on the +subject have run, but has so greatly improved on them that little +remains to be added to his account of the beaver beside a vocabulary +of their language, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their +religion, to make it the most complete natural history of that +animal." + +One might read almost the entire mass of printed matter concerning the +beaver without obtaining correct information about his manners and +customs or an accurate description of his works and without getting at +the real character of this animal. The actual life and character of +the beaver, however, the work which he does, the unusual things which +he has accomplished, are really more interesting and place the beaver +on a higher plane than do all the fictitious tales and exaggerated +accounts written concerning him. + +Mr. Lewis H. Morgan in his "American Beaver and his Works" says: "No +other animal has attracted a larger share of attention or acquired by +his intelligence a more respectable position in the public estimation. +Around him are the dam, the lodge, the burrow, the tree-cutting, and +the artificial canal, each testifying to his handiwork, and affording +us an opportunity to see the application as well as the results of his +mental and physical powers. There is no animal below man in the entire +range of Mammalia which offers to our investigation such a series of +works, or presents such remarkable material for study and illustration +of animal psychology." + +Mr. Morgan was for years a capable and painstaking student of the +beaver. That which he has written is so important a contribution +concerning the beaver that no one interested in this animal can afford +to be unacquainted with it. In the preface of his book he says: "I +took up the subject as I did fishing, for summer recreation. In the +year 1861, I had occasion to visit the Red River Settlement in the +Hudson's Bay Territory, and in 1862, to ascend the Missouri River to +the Rocky Mountains, which enabled me to compare the works of the +beaver in these localities with those on Lake Superior. At the outset +I had no expectation of following up the subject year after year, but +was led on, by the interest which it awakened, until the materials +collected seemed to be worth arranging for publication." + +The greatest admirers of the beaver are those who know him best. He +bears acquaintance. This cannot be had by merely looking at the +animal, nor by sympathetically studying his monumental works. These +works will of course impress one, but they give one at best only a +traveler's impression. Long and repeated visits to the colony in its +busy season appear to be the best way to get at the character of the +beaver. The cubical contents of a dam may not even suggest the +obstacles overcome in its construction, the labor of getting the +material, the dangers avoided, the numerous unexpected difficulties +overcome. Five cords of green poles and limbs in a neat pile in the +pond by the beaver house may tell that the harvest has been gathered, +but it does not tell that a part of this harvest may have been +gathered a mile away and skillfully transported to the house with +difficulty and amid dangers. A part of the food-pile may have been +dragged laboriously uphill and along trails which required months of +labor to open; or numerous pieces in this pile may have been floated +through a canal of such magnitude that a generation was required to +construct it. Altogether, harvest-gathering is interesting and heroic +work on the part of the beaver. In doing it he takes large risks, for +the harvest is usually gathered far from the house and on the +dangerous beaver frontier. + +For more than a quarter of a century I have been a friendly visitor to +his colonies, in which I have lingered long and lovingly. That he +makes mistakes is certain, but that he is an intelligent, reasoning +animal I have long firmly believed. As I said in "Wild Life on the +Rockies,"--"I have so often seen him change his plans so wisely and +meet emergencies so promptly and well that I can think of him only as +a reasoner." + +As evidence that he sometimes reasons, it may be cited that he +occasionally endeavors to fell trees in a given direction; that he +often avoids cutting those entangled at the top; that sometimes he +will, on a windy day, fell trees on the leeward side of a grove; that +he commonly avoids felling trees in the heart of a grove, but cuts on +the outskirts of it. He occasionally dams a stream, digs a canal, +leads water to a dry place, and there forms and fills a reservoir and +establishes a home. Often his house is built by a spring and thus the +danger from thick ice avoided. These are some of the reasons for my +believing him to be intelligent. + +Morgan speaks of the beaver as "endowed with a mental principle which +performs for him the same office that the human mind does for man," +and says, "The works of the beaver afford many interesting +illustrations of his intelligence and reasoning capacity," also, "In +the capacity thereby displayed of adapting their works to the +ever-varying circumstances in which they find themselves placed +instead of following blindly an invariable type, some evidence of +possession on their part of _free intelligence_ is undoubtedly +furnished." + +Mr. George J. Romanes has the following opinion of the beaver: "Most +remarkable among rodents for instinct and intelligence, unquestionably +stands the beaver. Indeed there is no animal--not even excepting the +ants and bees--where instinct has risen to a higher level of +far-reaching adaptation to certain constant conditions of +environment, or where faculties, undoubtedly instinctive, are more +puzzlingly wrought up with faculties no less undoubtedly +intelligent.... It is truly an astonishing fact that animals should +engage in such vast architectural labors with what appears to be the +deliberate purpose of securing, by such artificial means, the special +benefits that arise from their high engineering skill. So astonishing, +indeed, does this fact appear, that as sober minded interpreters of +fact we would fain look for some explanation which would not +necessitate the inference that these actions are due to any +intelligent appreciation, either of the benefits that arise from +labor, or of the hydrostatic principles to which this labor so clearly +refers." + +Mr. Alexander Majors, originator of the Pony Express, who lived a +long, alert life in the wilds, pays the beaver the following peculiar +tribute in his "Seventy Years on the Frontier": "The beaver, +considered as an engineer, is a remarkable animal. He can run a tunnel +as direct as the best engineer could do with his instruments to guide +him. I have seen where they have built a dam across a stream, and not +having sufficient head water to keep their pond full, they would cross +to a stream higher up the side of the mountain, and cut a ditch from +the upper stream and connect it with the pond of the lower, and do it +as neatly as an engineer with his tools could possibly do it. I have +often said that the beaver in the Rocky Mountains had more engineering +skill than the entire corps of engineers who were connected with +General Grant's army when he besieged Vicksburg on the banks of the +Mississippi. The beaver would never have attempted to turn the +Mississippi into a canal to change its channel without first making a +dam across the channel below the point of starting the canal. The +beaver, as I have said, rivals and sometimes even excels the ingenuity +of man." + +Longfellow translates the spirit of the beaver world into words, and +enables one in imagination to restore the primeval scenes wherein the +beaver lived:-- + + "Should you ask me, whence these stories? + Whence these legends and traditions, + With the odors of the forest, + With the dew and damp of meadows, + + * * * * * + + Should you ask where Nawadaha + Found these songs so wild and wayward, + Found these legends and traditions, + I should answer, I should tell you, + 'In the bird's-nests of the forest, + In the lodges of the beaver.'" + +And the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis, fleeing from the wrath of Hiawatha, +ran,-- + + "Till he came unto a streamlet + In the middle of the forest, + To a streamlet still and tranquil, + That had overflowed its margin, + To a dam made by the beavers, + To a pond of quiet water, + Where knee-deep the trees were standing, + Where the water-lilies floated, + Where the rushes waved and whispered. + On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, + On the dam of trunks and branches, + Through whose chinks the water spouted, + O'er whose summit flowed the streamlet. + From the bottom rose the beaver, + Looked with two great eyes of wonder, + Eyes that seemed to ask a question, + At the stranger Pau-Puk-Keewis." + + + + + +The Beaver Dam + + +Millions of beaver ponds graced America's wild gardens at the time the +first settlers came. These ragged and poetic ponds varied in length +from a few feet to one mile, and in area they were from one hundred +acres down to a miniature pond that half a dozen merry children might +encircle. These ponds were formed by dams built by beaver, and the +dams varied greatly in size and were made of poles variously combined +with sticks, stones, trash, rushes, and earth. + +In the Bad Lands of Dakota I saw two dams that were made of chunks of +coal. This material had caved from a near-by bluff. I have noticed a +few that were constructed of cobble-stones. The water-front of these +dams was filled and covered with clay, and they were the work of +"grass beavers,"--beaver that subsist chiefly on grass, and that live +in localities almost destitute of trees. + +It is doubtful if a dam is ever made by felling logs or large trees +across the stream. I have, however, seen a few real log dams, but in +these the logs were placed parallel to the flow of water. One of these +was in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Here a snow-slide swept +several hundred trees down the mountain. This wreckage was piled on +the bank of a stream. Beaver in a colony a short distance away +accepted this gift of the gods, and of these unwieldy logs built a dam +about two hundred feet downstream from where the avalanche had piled +the logs. This dam was a massive affair, about forty feet long and +eight feet high. It really appeared more like a log jam than a dam, +but it served the purpose intended and raised the level of the river +so that the water overflowed to one side and spread in a broad sheet +against a cliff and through a grove of aspens, which the beaver +proceeded to harvest. + +The majority of dams are made of slender green poles which are placed +lengthwise with the flow for the bottom, and set braced with the end +upstream a foot or so higher than the downstream end. With these there +are occasionally used small limby trees. The large end of the tree +is placed upstream, and the small bushy end downstream. If in a +current these sometimes are weighed down with mud or stones. Short, +stout sticks and long, slender poles are deftly mingled in the dam as +it rises. The poles overlie, and many completed dams appear as though +made of gigantic inclined half-closed shears and compasses of poles. +Thus a dam is doubly braced. The weight against it is resisted both by +the end-on poles that are parallel to the flow and by those set at an +angle to it. + +[Illustration: A NEW DAM] + +The shape and the material of a dam are dependent on a number of +things: the nature of the place where built, the kind of materials +available for its building, the purpose it is intended to serve, and +the relation it may have to dams already constructed. Sometimes a +small dam will be made--that may ultimately become a big one--by +simply digging a ditch across the stream or basin and piling the +excavated material into a dam. + +Beaver, like men, are unequal in their skill, both in planning and in +doing work, and the work of most beaver falls short of perfection. +Errors are not uncommon. More than one colony has commenced a dam +apparently without knowing that there was not sufficient available +material to complete it. Others have built in the wrong places, and +have thus failed to flood the area which they desired to reach or +cover with water. Occasionally the difficulties of construction have +been too great for the beaver who attempted it, and the dam has been +abandoned in an incomplete state. Now and then a weak dam breaks, or a +strong one is swept out by a flood. + +But why do beaver need or want the pond which the dam forms? They need +it for the purpose of maintaining water of sufficient depth and area +to enable them to move about in safety, and to transport their +food-supplies with the greatest ease. Above all, the pond is a place +of refuge into which the beaver can constantly plunge and have +security from his numerous and ever watchful enemies. The +house-entrance must be kept water-covered. In the water the beaver is +in his element. On the land he is a child lost in the wilds. He has +extremely short legs and a heavy body. His make-up fits him for +movement in the water. He is a graceful swimmer, and in the water can +move easily and evade enemies; while on land he is an awkward lubber, +moves slowly, and is easily overtaken. Water of sufficient depth and +area, then, is essential to the life and happiness of the beaver. To +have this at all times it is necessary, in localities where the supply +is at times insufficient, to maintain it by means of dams and ponds. + +Deep ponds are needed around the house; shallow ponds with shores in +near-by groves facilitate far-away logging. Dams are placed across +streams whose waters are to be led away through new channels and made +to serve elsewhere in canals or ponds. Dams are made across inclined +canals to catch and hold water in them. Streams are beaver's avenues +of travel. Along shallow streams in a beaver country it is not +uncommon to see an occasional short dam which forms a deep hole, which +apparently is maintained as a harbor or place of safety into which +traveling beaver may dive and be made safe from pursuit. + +Most beaver dams are built on the installment plan. They are the +result of growth. The new dam is short and comparatively low. It is +enlarged as conditions may require. As the trees in the edge of the +pond are harvested, the dam is built higher and longer, so as to flood +a larger area; or as sediment fills the pond, the dam is from time to +time raised and lengthened in order to maintain the desired depth of +water. Thus it may grow through the years until the possibilities of +the locality are exhausted. The dam may then be abandoned. It may be +used for a few years or it may be used for a century. A gigantic +beaver dam may thus represent the work of several generations of +beaver. It often occurs that one or more generations may use a dam and +yearly add something to its size. By and by these beaver may die or +emigrate. The old dam remains, falling to ruin in places. Years go by +and other beaver come upon the scene. The old dam is then used for the +foundation for a new one. The appearance of some old dams indicates +that they have been repeatedly used and abandoned. + +New dams, being made largely of coarse materials, appear very unlike +old ones. Decay, settling, repairs, and other changes come rapidly. +The dam is built of poles to-day; it speedily becomes earthy and is +planted by nature to grass, willows, and flowers. On old, large dams +it is not uncommon to see old forest-trees. The roots of these +entangle the constructive materials, penetrate deeply, and help to +anchor securely the entire dam. + +In only a few cases are the water-fronts of dams at once plastered or +filled in with mud. This is done only where there is a scarcity of +water. It is the aim of the beaver to raise the water in the pond to a +certain height and there maintain it, the chief purpose of the dam +being to regulate the height or the depth of the water. The water, in +streaming through new dams, deposits therein quantities of sticks, +trash, and sediment, so that in a year or two these choke the holes, +almost stop the leakage of the water, and help to solidify the dam. +The discharge from dams is regulated by the beaver. In some instances +water leaks through a dam in numerous places from bottom to top; in +others it seeps through only close to the top; and in still others the +dam is so solid that the water pours over the top in a thin sheet. In +some cases, however, instead of the water pouring over the entire +length of the dam the beaver force it to pour over in a given stretch +at one end or the other, or sometimes through a hole or tunnel. The +concentration of the overflow at some one point in the dam is commonly +done either for the purpose of using it in transportation or to force +the water to outpour on a spot where it will least erode the +foundation of the dam. Occasionally beaver compel the water to flow +round the end of a dam, which they raise sufficiently high for that +purpose. Sometimes they dig a waste-way for the water. + +European beaver appear to have barely developed to the dam-building +stage. Rarely did they build even a small, unimportant dam. Nor did +all the American beaver build dams. At the time the beaver population +was most numerous and widely distributed, probably not more than half +of them used the dam. However, those not using the dam were living in +places where the dam and consequent pond were not needed. Dam-building +enormously increased the habitable beaver area. There were, and are, +thousands of brooks which each year cease to flow for a period, yet +on these brooks are all other beaver requirements except a permanent, +sufficient water-supply. By dam-building water is stored for +to-morrow, or stream-courses changed, and with the assistance of +canals water is diverted to a dry ravine where a colony is +established. + +The dam is the largest and in many respects the most influential +beaver work. Across a stream it is an inviting thoroughfare for the +folk of the wild. As soon as a dam is completed, it becomes a +wilderness highway. It is used day and night. Across it go bears and +lions, rabbits and wolves, mice and porcupines; chipmunks use it for a +bridge, birds alight upon it, trout attempt to leap it, and in the +evening the graceful deer cast their reflections with the willows in +its quiet pond. Across it dash pursuer and pursued. Upon it take place +battles and courtships. Often it is torn by hoof and claw. Death +struggles stain it with blood. Many a drama, romantic and picturesque, +fierce and wild, is staged upon the beaver dam. + +The beaver dam gives new character to the landscape. It frequently +alters the course of a stream and changes the topography. It +introduces water into the scene. It nourishes new plant-life. It +brings new birds. It provides a harbor and a home for fish throughout +the changing seasons. It seizes sediment and soil from the rushing +waters, and it sends water through subterranean ways to form and feed +springs which give bloom to terraces below. It is a distributor of the +waters; and on days when dark clouds are shaken with heavy thunder, +the beaver dam silently breasts, breaks, and delays the down-rushing +flood waters, saves and stores them; then, through all the rainless +days that follow, it slowly releases them. + +Most old colonies have many dams and ponds. A dam is sometimes built +for the purpose of forcing water back and to one side into a grove +that is to be harvested for food. In many cases water flows round the +end of a dam, and in making its way back to the main channel is +intercepted by another dam, then another; and thus the water from one +small brook maintains a cluster or chain of pondlets. + +The majority of beaver dams are as crooked as a river's course. Now +and then one is straight. A few are built from shore to a boulder, +from the boulder to a willow-clump, and finally, perhaps, from +willow-clump to some outstretching peninsula on the further shore. It +is not uncommon for a short dam to be built and afterwards lengthened +with additions on each end which may curve either down or up stream. +Sometimes a dam is built outward from opposite shores simultaneously +by separate but coöperating crews of beaver. In swift water these ends +are forced downstream in building, so that when they are finally +joined midstream the dam curves noticeably downstream. + +On one occasion I watched beaver commence and complete a dam in +moderately swift water that when finished bowed strongly _upstream_. +This, however, was not the intention of the builders. The material for +this dam consisted of willow and alder poles that were cut some +distance upstream. These were floated down as used. This dam was begun +against a huge boulder near midstream, and built outward +simultaneously toward both shores. Despite the repeated efforts of +the builders to extend it in a straight line to the shore, the flow of +the water pushed these outbuilding ends downward, and when they +finally reached the shore this fifty-odd feet of dam with the boulder +for a keystone had an arch that was about fifteen feet in advance of +the bases. + +Not far from where I lived in the mountains when a boy, the beaver +built a dam. This had a slight arch upstream. A few years later the +dam was doubled in length by building an extension on the end which +bowed downstream. It thus stood a reverse curve. Later the dam was +still further lengthened by a comparatively straight stretch on one +end, and by a short, down-bowing stretch on the other. Recent +additions to this dam consist of wings at the end which sweep +upstream. The dam as it now stands reaches about three fourths of the +way around the pond which it forms. + +It is not uncommon for a dam to be planned and built with an arch +against the current or against the water which it afterwards impounds. +The most interesting dam of this kind that I ever saw was one across +the narrow neck of a rudely bell-shaped basin that was about two +hundred feet in length. The material for this dam came from a grove of +aspens that extended into one side of the basin. The floor of this +basin was partly covered with a few inches of water. In starting the +dam the beaver evidently knew where they wanted to build it. This was +not by the aspen grove where the materials were convenient, where the +dam would need to be about one hundred and twenty feet long, but was +about fifty feet farther on, where a dam of only forty feet was +required. This dam when completed bowed seven feet against the +enclosed water. The beaver commenced building at the end nearest the +grove of aspens, pulling and dragging the poles the fifty feet to it. +They laid these aspen poles, which were two to five inches in diameter +and from four to twelve feet in length, at right angles to the length +of the dam, and usually placed the large end upstream or against the +current. But the water was shallow, and the transportation of these +poles to the dam was difficult. Accordingly a ditch or canal was dug +from the grove to the place by the dam where the work was going on. +This ditch was about twenty-five inches wide and fifteen deep. The +waters filled it and thereby afforded an easy means of floating or +transporting the poles from the grove to the place where they were +being used. This ditch was carried forward along the upper line of the +dam, and several feet in advance of the spot where the outbuilding +work was advancing. Upon the earth thrown up from this were laid the +upper or high ends of the poles. When the dam was finally completed, +it was approximately eight feet wide on the base and stood four feet +high. As soon as it was completed, the beaver stuffed the water-front +with mud and grass roots, which were obtained by digging from the +construction ditch immediately in front of the dam. In other words, +they enlarged their pole-floating ditch above the dam into a deeper +and wider channel, and used this excavated material for strengthening +and waterproofing the dam. + +The longest beaver dam that I have ever seen or measured was on the +Jefferson River near Three Forks, Montana. This was 2140 feet long. +Most of it was old. More than half of it was less than six feet in +height; two short sections of it, however, were twenty-three feet wide +at the base, five on top, and fourteen feet high. + +[Illustration: PART OF AN OLD DAM 1040 FEET LONG] + + + + +Harvest Time with Beavers + + +One autumn I watched a beaver colony and observed the customs of its +primitive inhabitants as they gathered their harvest for winter. It +was the Spruce Tree Colony, the most attractive of the sixteen beaver +municipalities on the big moraine on the slope of Long's Peak. + +The first evening I concealed myself close to the beaver house by the +edge of the pond. Just at sunset a large, aged beaver of striking, +patriarchal appearance rose in the water by the house, and swam +slowly, silently round the pond. He kept close to the shore and +appeared to be scouting to see if an enemy lurked near. On completing +the circuit of the pond, he climbed upon the end of a log that was +thrust a few feet out into the water. Presently several other beaver +appeared in the water close to the house. A few of these at once left +the pond and nosed quietly about on the shore. The others swam about +for some minutes and then joined their comrades on land, where all +rested for a time. + +Meanwhile the aged beaver had lifted a small aspen limb out of the +water and was squatted on the log, leisurely eating bark. Before many +minutes elapsed the other beavers became restless and finally started +up the slope in a runway. They traveled slowly in single file and one +by one vanished amid the tall sedge. The old beaver slipped +noiselessly into the water, and a series of low waves pointed toward +the house. It was dark as I stole away in silence for the night, and +Mars was gently throbbing in the black water. + +This was an old beaver settlement, and the numerous harvests gathered +by its inhabitants had long since exhausted the near-by growths of +aspen, the bark of which is the favorite food of North American +beaver, though the bark of the willow, cottonwood, alder, and birch is +also eaten. An examination of the aspen supply, together with the +lines of transportation,--the runways, canals, and ponds,--indicated +that this year's harvest would have to be brought a long distance. The +place it would come from was an aspen grove far up the slope, about a +quarter of a mile distant from the main house, and perhaps a hundred +and twenty feet above it. In this grove I cut three notches in the +trunks of several trees to enable me to identify them whether in the +garnered pile by a house or along the line of transportation to it. + +The grounds of this colony occupied several acres on a terraced, +moderately steep slope of a mountain moraine. Along one side rushed a +swift stream on which the colonists maintained three but little used +ponds. On the opposite side were the slope and summit of the moraine. +There was a large pond at the bottom, and one or two small ponds, or +water-filled basins, dotted each of the five terraces which rose +above. The entire grounds were perforated with subterranean +passageways or tunnels. + +Beaver commonly fill their ponds by damming a brook or a river. But +this colony obtained most of its water-supply from springs which +poured forth abundantly on the uppermost terrace, where the water was +led into one pond and a number of basins. Overflowing from these, it +either made a merry little cascade or went to lubricate a slide on +the short slopes which led to the ponds on the terrace below. The +waters from all terraces were gathered into a large pond at the +bottom. This pond measured six hundred feet in circumference. The +crooked and almost encircling grass-grown dam was six feet high and +four hundred feet long. In its upper edge stood the main house, which +was eight feet high and forty feet in circumference. There was also +another house on one of the terraces. + +After notching the aspens I spent some time exploring the colony +grounds and did not return to the marked trees until forty-eight hours +had elapsed. Harvest had begun, and one of the largest notched trees +had been felled and removed. Its gnawed stump was six inches in +diameter and stood fifteen inches high. The limbs had been trimmed +off, and a number of these lay scattered about the stump. The trunk, +which must have been about eighteen feet long, had disappeared, cut +into lengths of from three to six feet, probably, and started toward +the harvest pile. Wondering for which house these logs were intended, +I followed, hoping to trace and trail them to the house, or find them +_en route_. From the spot where they were cut, they had evidently been +rolled down a steep, grassy seventy-foot slope, at the bottom of this +dragged an equal distance over a level stretch among some lodge-pole +pines, and then pushed or dragged along a narrow runway that had been +cut through a rank growth of willows. Once through the willows, they +were pushed into the uppermost pond. They were taken across this, +forced over the dam on the opposite side, and shot down a slide into +the pond which contained the smaller house. Only forty-eight hours +before, the little logs which I was following were in a tree, and now +I expected to find them by this house. It was good work to have got +them here so quickly, I thought. But no logs could be found by the +house or in the pond! The folks at this place had not yet laid up +anything for winter. The logs must have gone farther. + +On the opposite side of this pond I found where the logs had been +dragged across the broad dam and then heaved into a long, wet slide +which landed them in a small, shallow harbor in the grass. From this +point a canal about eighty feet long ran around the brow of the +terrace and ended at the top of a long slide which reached to the big +pond. This canal was new and probably had been dug especially for this +harvest. For sixty feet of its length it was quite regular in form and +had an average width of thirty inches and a depth of fourteen. The mud +dug in making it was piled evenly along the lower side. Altogether it +looked more like the work of a careful man with a shovel than of +beaver without tools. Seepage and overflow from the ponds above filled +and flowed slowly through it and out at the farther end, where it +swept down the long slide into the big pond. Through this canal the +logs had been taken one by one. At the farther end I found the +butt-end log. It probably had been too heavy to heave out of the +canal, but tracks in the mud indicated that there was a hard tussle +before it was abandoned. + +The pile of winter supplies was started. Close to the big house a few +aspen leaves fluttered on twigs in the water; evidently these twigs +were attached to limbs or larger pieces of aspen that were piled +beneath the surface. Could it be that the aspen which I had marked on +the mountainside a quarter of a mile distant so short a time before, +and which I had followed over slope and slide, through canal and +basin, was now piled on the bottom of this pond? I waded out into the +water, prodded about with a pole, and found several smaller logs. +Dragging one of these to the surface, I found there were three notches +in it. + +Evidently these heavy green tree cuttings had been sunk to the bottom +simply by the piling of other similar cuttings upon them. With this +heavy material in the still water a slight contact with the bottom +would prevent the drifting of accumulated cuttings until a heavy pile +could be formed. However, in deep or swift water I have noticed that +an anchorage for the first few pieces was secured by placing these +upon the lower slope of the house or against the dam. + +Scores of aspens were felled in the grove where the notched ones were. +They were trimmed, cut into sections, and limbs, logs, and all taken +over the route of the one I had followed, and at last placed in a pile +beside the big house. This harvest-gathering went on for a month. All +about was busy, earnest preparation for winter. The squirrels from the +tree-tops kept a rattling rain of cones on the leaf-strewn forest +floor, the cheery chipmunk foraged and frolicked among the withered +leaves and plants, while aspens with leaves of gold fell before the +ivory sickles of the beaver. Splendid glimpses, grand views, I had of +this strange harvest-home. How busy the beavers were! They were busy +in the grove on the steep mountainside; they tugged logs across the +runways; they hurried them across the water-basins, wrestled with them +in canals, and merrily piled them by the rude house in the water. And +I watched them through the changing hours; I saw their shadowy +activity in the starry, silent night; I saw them hopefully leave home +for the harvest groves in the serene twilight, and I watched them +working busily in the light of the noonday sun. + +Most of the aspens were cut off between thirteen and fifteen inches +above the ground. A few stumps were less than five inches high, while +a number were four feet high. These high cuttings were probably made +from reclining trunks of lodged aspens which were afterward removed. +The average diameter of the aspens cut was four and one half inches at +the top of the stump. Numerous seedlings of an inch diameter were cut, +and the largest tree felled for this harvest measured fourteen inches +across the stump. This had been laid low only a few hours before I +found it, and a bushel of white chips and cuttings encircled the +lifeless stump like a wreath. In falling, the top had become entangled +in an alder thicket and lodged six feet from the ground. It remained +in this position for several days and was apparently abandoned; but +the last time I went to see it the alders which upheld it were being +cut away. Although the alders were thick upon the ground, only those +which had upheld the aspen had been cut. It may be that the beaver +which felled them looked and thought before they went ahead with this +cutting. + +Why had this and several other large aspens been left uncut in a place +where all were convenient for harvest? All other neighboring aspens +were cut years ago. One explanation is that the beaver realized that +the tops of the aspens were entangled and interlocked in the limbs of +crowding spruces and would not fall if cut off at the bottom. This and +one other aspen were the only large ones that were felled, and the +tops of these had been recently released by the overturning of some +spruces and the breaking of several branches on others. Other +scattered large aspens were left uncut, but all of these were clasped +in the arms of near-by spruces. + +It was the habit of these colonists to transfer a tree to the harvest +pile promptly after cutting it down. But one morning I found logs on +slides and in canals, and unfinished work in the grove, as though +everything had been suddenly dropped in the night when work was at its +height. Coyotes had howled freely during the night, but this was not +uncommon. In going over the grounds I found the explanation of this +untidy work in a bear track and numerous wolf tracks, freshly moulded +in the muddy places. + +After the bulk of the harvest was gathered, I went one day to the +opposite side of the moraine and briefly observed the methods of the +Island beaver colony. The ways of the two colonies were in some +things very different. In the Spruce Tree Colony the custom was to +move the felled aspen promptly to the harvest pile. In the Island +Colony the custom was to cut down most of the harvest before +transporting any of it to the pile beside the house. Of the one +hundred and sixty-two trees that had been felled for this harvest, one +hundred and twenty-seven were still lying where they fell. However, +the work of transporting was getting under way; a few logs were in the +pile beside the house, and numerous others were scattered along the +canals, runways, and slides between the house and the harvest grove. + +[Illustration: THE SPRUCE TREE HOUSE AND FOOD-PILE, OCTOBER 12] + +There was more wasted labor, too, in the Island Colony. This was +noticeable in the attempts that had been made to fell limb-entangled +trees that could not fall. One five-inch aspen had three times been +cut off at the bottom. The third cut was more than three feet from the +ground, and was made by a beaver working from the top of a fallen log. +Still this high-cut aspen refused to come down and there it hung like +a collapsed balloon entangled in tree-tops. + +Prowling hunters have compelled most beaver to work at night, but the +Spruce Tree Colony was an isolated one, and occasionally its members +worked and even played in the sunshine. Each day I secluded myself, +kept still, and waited; and on a few occasions watched them as they +worked in the light. + +One windy day, just as I was unroping myself from the shaking limb of +a spruce, I saw four beaver plodding along in single file beneath. +They had come out of a hole between the roots of the spruce. At an +aspen growth about fifty feet distant they separated. Though they had +been closely assembled, each appeared utterly oblivious of the +presence of the others. One squatted on the ground by an aspen, took a +bite of bark out of it, and ate leisurely. By and by he rose, clasped +the aspen with fore paws, and began to bite chips from it +systematically. He was deliberately cutting it down. The most aged +beaver waddled near an aspen, gazed into its top for a few seconds, +then moved away about ten feet and started to fell a five-inch aspen. +The one rejected was entangled at the top. Presently the third beaver +selected a tree, and after some trouble in getting comfortably seated, +or squatted, also began cutting. The fourth beaver disappeared and I +did not see him again. While I was looking for this one the huge, aged +beaver whose venerable appearance had impressed me the first evening +appeared on the scene. He came out of a hole beneath some spruces +about a hundred feet distant. He looked neither to right nor to left, +nor up nor down, as he ambled toward the aspen growth. When about +halfway there he wheeled suddenly and took an uneasy survey of the +open he had traversed, as though he had heard an enemy behind. Then +with apparently stolid indifference he went on leisurely, and for a +time paused among the cutters, which did nothing to indicate that they +realized his presence. He ate some bark from a green limb on the +ground, moved on, and went into the hole beneath me. He appeared so +large that I afterward measured the distance between the two aspens +where he paused. He was not less than three and a half feet long and +probably weighed fifty pounds. He had all his toes; there was no white +spot on his body; in fact, there was neither mark nor blemish by +which I could positively identify him. Yet I feel that in my month +around the colony I beheld the patriarch of the first evening in +several scenes of action. + +Sixty-seven minutes after the second beaver began cutting he made a +brief pause; then he suddenly thudded the ground with his tail, +hurriedly took out a few more chips, and ran away, with the other two +beaver a little in advance, just as his four-inch aspen settled over +and fell. All paused for a time close to the hole beneath me, and then +the old beaver returned to his work. The one that had felled his tree +followed closely and at once began on another aspen. The other beaver, +with his aspen half cut off, went into the hole and did not again come +out. By and by an old and a young beaver came out of the hole. The +young one at once began cutting limbs off the recently felled aspen, +while the other began work on the half-cut tree; but he ignored the +work already done, and finally severed the trunk about four inches +above the cut made by the other. Suddenly the old beaver whacked the +ground and ran, but at thirty feet distant he paused and nervously +thumped the ground with his tail, as his aspen slowly settled and +fell. Then he went into the hole beneath me. + +This year's harvest was so much larger than usual that it may be the +population of this colony had been increased by the arrival of +emigrants from a persecuted colony down in the valley. The total +harvest numbered four hundred and forty-three trees. These made a +harvest pile four feet high and ninety feet in circumference. A thick +covering of willows was placed on top of the harvest pile,--I cannot +tell for what reason unless it was to sink all the aspens below reach +of the ice. This bulk of stores together with numerous roots of willow +and water plants, which are eaten in the water from the bottom of the +pond, would support a numerous beaver population through the days of +ice and snow. + +When I took my last tour through the colony everything was ready for +the long and cold winter. Dams were in repair and ponds were brimming +over with water, the fresh coats of mud on the houses were freezing to +defy enemies, and a bountiful harvest was home. Harvest-gathering is +full of hope and romance. What a joy it must be to every man or +animal who has a hand in it! What a satisfaction, too, for all +dependent upon a harvest, to know that there is abundance stored for +all the frosty days! + +The people of this wild, strange, picturesque colony had planned and +prepared well. I wished them a winter unvisited by cruel fate or foe, +and trusted that when June came again the fat and furry young beavers +would play with the aged one amid the tiger lilies in the shadows of +the big spruce trees. + + + + +Transportation Facilities + + +Two successive dry years had greatly reduced the water-level of Lily +Lake, and the consequent shallowness of the water made a serious +situation for its beaver inhabitants. This lake covered about ten +acres, and was four feet deep in the deepest part, while over nine +tenths of the area the water was two feet or less in depth. It was +supplied by springs. Early in the autumn of 1911 the water completely +disappeared from about one half of the area, and most of the remainder +became so shallow that beaver could no longer swim beneath the +surface. This condition exposed them to the attack of enemies and made +the transportation of supplies to the house slow and difficult. + +In the lake the beaver had dug an extensive system of deep +canals,--the work of years. By means of these deep canals the beaver +were able to use the place until the last, for these were full of +water even after the lake-bed was completely exposed. One day in +October while passing the lake, I noticed a coyote on the farther +shore stop suddenly, prick up his ears, and give alert attention to an +agitated forward movement in the shallow water of a canal. Then he +plunged into the water and endeavored to seize a beaver that was +struggling forward through water that was too shallow for his heavy +body. Although this beaver made his escape, other members of the +colony may not have been so fortunate. + +The drouth continued and by mid-October the lake went entirely dry +except in the canals. Off in one corner stood the beaver house, a tiny +rounded and solitary hill in the miniature black plain of lake-bed. +With one exception the beaver abandoned the site and moved on to other +scenes, I know not where. One old beaver remained. Whether he did this +through the fear of not being equal to the overland journey across the +dry rocky ridge and down into Wind River, or whether from deep love of +the old home associations, no one can say. But he remained and +endeavored to make provision for the oncoming winter. Close to the +house he dug or enlarged a well that was about six feet in diameter +and four feet in depth. Seepage filled this hole, and into it he piled +a number of green aspen chunks and cuttings, a meagre food-supply for +the long, cold winter that followed. Extreme cold began in early +November, and not until April was there a thaw. + +[Illustration: LAKE-BED CANALS AT LILY LAKE, OCTOBER, 1911] + +[Illustration: SECTION OF A 750-FOOT CANAL AT LILY LAKE Here five feet +wide and three feet deep] + +Before the lake-bed was snow-covered, all the numerous canals and +basins which the beaver had excavated could be plainly seen and +examined. The magnitude of the work which the beaver had performed in +making these is beyond comprehension. I took a series of photographs +of these excavations and made numerous measurements. To the north of +the house a pool had been dug that was three feet deep, thirty feet +long, and about twenty wide. There extended from this a canal that was +one hundred and fifty feet long. The food basin was thirty feet wide +and four feet deep. This had a canal connection with the house. In the +bottom of the basin was one of the feeble springs which supply the +lake. Another canal, which extended three hundred and fifty feet in a +northerly direction from the house, was from three to four feet wide +and three feet deep. The largest ditch or canal was seven hundred and +fifty feet long and three feet deep throughout. This extended +eastward, then northeasterly, and for one hundred feet was five feet +wide. In the remaining six hundred and fifty feet it was three to four +feet wide. There were a number of minor ditches and canals connecting +the larger ones, and altogether the extent of all made an impressive +show in the empty lake-basin. + +Meantime the old beaver had a hard winter. The cold weather persisted, +and finally the well in which he had deposited winter food froze to +the bottom. Even the entrance-holes into the house were frozen shut. +This sealed him in. The old fellow, whose teeth were worn and whose +claws were bad, apparently tried in vain to break out. On returning +from three months' absence, two friends and I investigated the old +beaver's condition. We broke through the frozen walls of the house and +crawled in. The old fellow was still alive, though greatly emaciated. +For some time--I know not how long--he had subsisted on the wood and +the bark of some green sticks which had been built into an addition +of the house during the autumn. We cut several green aspens into short +lengths and threw them into the house. The broken hole was then +closed. The old fellow accepted these cheerfully. For six weeks aspens +were occasionally thrown to him, and at the end of this time the +spring warmth had melted the deep snow. The water rose and filled the +pond and unsealed the entrance to the house, and again the old fellow +emerged into the water. The following summer he was joined, or +rejoined, by a number of other beaver. + +In many localities the canals or ditches dug and used by the beaver +form their most necessary and extensive works. These canals require +enormous labor and much skill. In point of interest they even excel +the house and the dam. It is remarkable that of the thousands of +stories concerning the beaver only a few have mentioned the beaver +canals. These are labor-saving improvements, and not only enable the +beaver to live easily and safely in places where he otherwise could +not live at all, but apparently they allow him to live happily. The +excavations made in taking material for house or dam commonly are +turned to useful purpose. The beaver not only builds his mound-like +house, but uses the basin thus formed in excavating earthy material +for the house for a winter food depository. Ofttimes, too, in building +the dam he does it by piling up the material dug from a ditch which +runs parallel and close to the dam, and which is useful to him as a +deep waterway after the dam is completed. + +In transporting trees for food-supply, water transportation is so much +easier and safer than land, that wherever the immediate surroundings +of the pond are comparatively level the beaver endeavors to lead water +out to tree groves by digging a canal from the edge of the pond to +these groves. The felled trees are by this means easily floated into +the pond. One of the simplest forms of beaver canal is a narrow, +outward extension of the pond. This varies in length from a few yards +to one hundred feet or more. + +Another and fairly common form of canal is one that is built across +low narrow necks of land which thrust out into large beaver ponds, or +on narrow stretches of land around which crooked streams wander. + +The majority of beaver ponds are comparatively shallow over the +greater portion of their area. In many cases it is not easy, or even +possible, to deepen them. They may be so shallow that the pond freezes +to the bottom in winter except in its small deeper portion. The +shallow ponds are made more usable by a number of canals in the +bottom. These canals assure deep-water stretches under all conditions. +Most beaver ponds have a canal that closely parallels the dam. In some +instances this is extended around the pond a few yards inside the +shore-line. Two canals usually extend from the house. One of these +connects with the canal by the dam, the other runs to the place on the +shore (commonly at the end of a trail or slide) most visited by the +beaver. + +In Jefferson Valley, Montana, not far from Three Forks, I enjoyed the +examination of numerous beaver workings, and made measurements of the +most interesting system of beaver canals that I have ever seen. The +beaver house for which these canals did service was situated on the +south bank of the river, about three feet above the summer level of +the water and about two hundred feet north of the hilly edge of the +valley. From the river a crescent-shaped canal, about thirty-five feet +in length, had been dug halfway around the base of the house. +Connected with this was a basin for winter food; this was five feet +deep and thirty-five feet in diameter. From this a canal extended +southward two hundred and seven feet. One hundred and ten feet distant +from the house was a boulder that was about ten feet in diameter. This +was imbedded in about two feet of soil. Around this boulder the canal +made a detour, and then resumed its comparatively straight line +southward. + +Over the greater portion of its length this canal was four feet wide, +and at no point was it narrower than three feet. Its average depth was +twenty-eight inches. For one hundred and forty-seven feet it ran +through an approximately level stretch of the valley, and seepage +filled it with water. A low, semi-circular dam, about fifty feet in +length, crossed it at the one hundred and forty-seven-foot mark, and +served to catch and run seepage water into it, and also to act as a +wall across the canal to hold the water. The most southerly sixty feet +of this canal on the edge of the foothills ran uphill, and was about +four feet deep at the upper end, four feet higher than the end by the +house. The dam across it was supplemented by a wall forty-eight feet +further on. This wall was simply a short dam across the canal, in a +part that was inclined, and plainly for the purpose of retaining water +in the canal. The upper part of the canal was filled with water by a +streamlet from off the slope. Apparently this canal was old, for there +was growing on its banks near the house, a spruce tree, four inches in +diameter, that had grown since the canal was made. + +[Illustration: Beaver Colony on Jefferson River near Three Forks, +Montana] + +The wall or small dam which beaver build across canals that are +inclined represents an interesting phase of beaver development. That +these walls are built for the purpose of retaining water in the canal +appears certain. They are most numerous in canals of steepest incline, +though rarely less than twenty feet apart. I have not seen a wall in +an almost dead-level canal, except it was there for the purpose of +raising the height of the water. This wall or buttress is after all +but a dam, and like most dams it is built for the purpose of raising +and maintaining the level of water. + +Extending at right angles westward from the end of the old canal was a +newer one of two hundred and twenty-one feet. A wall separated and +united the two. One hundred and sixty feet of this new canal ran along +the contour of a hill, approximately at a dead level. Then came a +wall, and from this the last sixty-one feet extended southward up a +shallow ravine. In this part there were two walls. The upper end of +the sixty-one-foot extension was nine feet higher than the house, and +four hundred and twenty-eight feet distant from it. The +two-hundred-and-twenty-one-foot extension was from twenty-six to +thirty-four inches wide, and averaged twenty-two inches deep. The +entire new part was supplied with spring water, which the beaver had +diverted from a ravine to the west and led by a seventy-foot ditch +into the upper end of their canal. Thirty feet from the end of the +canal were two burrows, evidently safe places into which the beaver +could retreat in case of sudden attack from wolves or other foe. +There were two other of these burrows, one at the outer end of the old +canal and the other alongside the boulder one hundred and ten feet +from the house. + +At the time I saw these canals, the only trees near were those of an +aspen grove which surrounded the extreme end. It was autumn, and on +both tributary slopes by the end of the canal, aspens were being cut, +dragged, and rolled down these slopes into the upper end of the canal, +then floated through its waters, dragged over and across the walls, +and at last piled up for winter food in the basin by the house. In all +probability this long, large canal had been built a few yards at a +time, being extended as the trees near-by were cut down and used. + +Where beaver long inhabit a locality it is not uncommon for them to +have two or three distinct and well-used trails from points on the +water's edge which lead into neighboring groves or tree-clumps. These +are the beaten tracks traveled by the beaver as they go forth from the +water for food, and over which they drag their trees and saplings +into the water. On steep slopes by the water these are called slides. +This name is also given to places in the dam over which beaver +frequently pass in their outgoings and incomings. Commonly these +trails avoid ridges and ground swells by keeping in the bottom of a +ravine; logs are cut through and rolled out of the way, or a tunnel +driven beneath; obstructions are removed, or a good way made round +them. Their log roads compare favorably with the log roads of woodsmen +who cut with steel instead of enamel. + +In most old beaver colonies, where the character of the bottom of the +pond permits it, there are two or more tunnels or subways beneath the +floor of the principal pond. The main tunnel begins close to the +foundation of the house, and penetrates the earth a foot or more +beneath the water to a point on land a few feet beyond the shore-line. +If there are a number of small ponds in a colony that are separated by +fingers of land, it is not uncommon for these bits of land to be +penetrated by a thoroughfare tunnel. These tunnels through the +separating bits of land enable the beaver to go from one pond to +another without exposing themselves to dangers on land, and also +offer an easy means of intercommunication between ponds when these are +ice-covered. Pond subways also afford a place of refuge or a means of +escape in case the house is destroyed, the dam broken, or the pond +drained, or in case the pond should freeze to the bottom. Commonly +these are full of water, but some are empty. On the Missouri and other +rivers, where there are several feet of cut banks above the water, +beaver commonly dug a steeply inclined tunnel from the river's edge to +the top of a bank a few feet back. + +Most of this tunnel work is hidden and remains unknown. A striking +example was in the Spruce Tree Colony, elsewhere described. These +colonists, apparently disgusted by having their ponds completely +filled with sediment which came down as the result of a cloudburst, +abandoned the old colony-site. A new site was selected on a moraine, +only a short distance from the old one. Here in the sod a basin was +scooped out, and a dam made with the excavated material. The waters +from a spring which burst forth in the moraine, about two hundred +yards up the slope and perhaps one hundred feet above, trickled down +and in due time formed a pond. The following year this pond was +enlarged, and another one built upon a terrace about one hundred feet +up the slope. From year to year there were enlargements of the old +pond and the building of new pondlets, until there were seven on the +terraces of this moraine. These, together with the connecting slides +and canals, required more water than the spring supplied, especially +in the autumn when the beaver were floating their winter supplies from +pond to pond. Within the colony area, too, were many water-filled +underground passages or subway tunnels. One of these penetrated the +turf beneath the willows for more than two hundred feet. + +While watching the autumnal activities of this colony, as described in +another chapter, I broke through the surface and plunged my leg into +an underground channel or subway that was half filled with water. +Taking pains to trace this stream downward, I found that it emptied +into the uppermost of the ponds along with the waters from a small +spring. Then, tracing the channel upwards, I found that, about one +hundred and forty feet distant from the uppermost pond, it connected +with the waters of the brook on which the old colony formerly had a +place. This tunnel over most of its course was about two feet beneath +the surface, was fourteen inches in diameter, and ran beneath the +roots of spruce trees. The water which the tunnel led from the brook +plainly was being used to increase the supply needed in the canals, +ponds, and pools of the Spruce Tree Colony. The intake of this was in +a tiny pond which the beaver had formed by a damlet across the brook. +That this increased supply of water was of great advantage to the busy +and populous Spruce Tree Colony, there can be no doubt. Was this +tunnel planned and made for this especial purpose, or was the +increased water-supply of the colony the result of accident by the +brook's breaking into this subway tunnel? + +The canals which beaver dig, the slides which they use, the trails +which they clear and establish, conclusively show that these animals +appreciate the importance of good waterways and good roads,--in other +words, good transportation facilities. + + + + +The Primitive House + + +The Lily Lake beaver house, in which the old beaver spent the drouthy +winter, was a large roughly rounded affair that measured twenty-two +feet in diameter. It rose only four feet above the normal water-line. +This house had been three times altered and enlarged, and once raised +in height. Its mud walls were heavily reinforced with polelike sticks, +which were placed at the junctures of the enlargements. The one large +room was more than twelve feet in diameter. Near the centre stood a +support for the upper part of the house. This support was about one +and a half by two and a half feet, and was composed for the most part +of sticks. But few houses have this support; commonly the room is +vaulted. The room itself averaged two and a half feet high. It had +four entrances. + +A house commonly has two entrances, but it may have only one or as +many as five. Thus the way to the outer world from the inside of the +house is through one or more inclined passageways or tunnels. The +upper opening of these entrances is in the floor a few inches above +the water-level, and the lower opening in the bottom of the pond under +about three feet of water. These extend at an angle through the solid +foundation of the house, are about one foot in diameter and four to +fifteen feet long, and are full of water almost to floor-level. This +dark, windowless hut has no other entrance. + +Most beaver houses stand in a pond, though a number are built on the +shore and partly in the water, and still others on the bank a few feet +away from the water. The external appearance and internal construction +of the houses are in a general way the same, regardless of the +situation or size. Most beaver houses appear conical. Measured on the +water-line, they are commonly found to be slightly elliptical. The +diameter on the water-line is from five to thirty-five feet, and the +height above water is from three to seven feet. + +A house may be built almost entirely of sticks, or of a few sticks +with a larger proportion of mud and turf. In building, a small opening +is left,--or built around and over,--which is afterwards enlarged +into a room. + +Houses that are built in a pond usually stand in three or four feet of +water. The foundation is laid on the bottom of the pond, of the size +intended for the house, and built up a solid mass to a few inches +above water-level. This island-like foundation is covered with a crude +hemisphere or dome-shaped house, the central portion of the foundation +forming the floor of the low-vaulted room which is enclosed by the +thick house-walls. In building the house the beaver provide a +temporary support for the combined roof and walls by piling in the +centre of the floor a two-foot mound of mud. Over this is placed a +somewhat flattened tepee- or cone-shaped frame of sticks and small +poles. These stand on the outer part of the foundation and lean inward +with upper ends meeting against and above the temporary support. The +beaver then cover this framework with two or three feet of mud, brush, +and turf, and thus make the walls and the roof of the house. When the +outer part of the house is completed, they dig an inclined +passageway, from the bottom of the pond up through the foundation, +into the irregular space left between the supporting pile of mud and +the walls. And of this space they shape a room, by clawing out the +temporary support and gnawing off the intruding sticks. This +represents the most highly developed type of beaver house. + +In most houses the temporary support is not used, but a part of the +wall is carried up to completion, and against it are leaned sticks, +which rest upon the edge of the remaining foundation. A finished house +of this kind has a slightly elliptical outline. However, many a house +is a crude haphazard pile of material in which a room has been +burrowed. + +The room is from one to three feet high, and from three to twenty feet +across. The room is a kind of a burrow and is without either door or +window. Half-buried sticks make a comparatively dry floor, despite the +fact that it is only a few inches above water-level. Beaver sleep on +the floor, usually with tail bent along the side after the fashion of +a dozing cat, in a nest of shredded wood, which they patiently make by +thinly splitting and paring pieces of wood. Just why this kind of +bedding is used cannot be said, but probably because this material +dries more quickly, is more comfortable and more sanitary, and harbors +fewer parasites. However, a few beds are made of grass, leaves, or +moss. + +But little earthy matter is used in the tip-top of the house, where +the minute disjointed air-holes between the interlaced poles give the +room scanty ventilation. + +Except in a few cases where house-walls are overgrown with willows or +grass, the erosive action of wind and water rapidly thins and weakens +them. Hence the house must receive frequent repairs. Each autumn it is +plastered or piled all over with sticks or mud. The mud covering +varies in thickness from two to six inches. The mud for this purpose +is usually dredged from the bottom of the pond close to the foundation +of the house. It is carried up, a double handful at a time, the beaver +waddling on his hind legs as he holds it with his fore paws against +his breast. A half-dozen or more beaver may be carrying mud up at +once. The covering not only thickens the walls and increases the +warmth of the house, but also freezes and becomes an armor of stone +that is impregnable to most beaver enemies. The "mudding" of the house +is a part of the natural and necessary preparation for winter. It may +also be a special means of protection deliberately carried out by the +beaver. The fact that an occasional thick-walled or grass-covered +beaver house was not thus plastered in autumn--perhaps because it did +not need it--has led a few people to affirm that beaver houses are not +mud-covered in the autumn. Many years of observation show that most +beaver houses do receive an autumnal plastering, and the few that do +not have this attention usually have thick, well-preserved walls and +do not need it. + +One autumn in Montana, of twenty-seven beaver houses which I examined, +twenty-one received mud covering; three of the others were thickly +overgrown with willows and two were grass-grown. Only one thin-walled +house that needed reinforcement did not receive it; and this one, by +the way, was broken into by a bear before the winter had got fairly +under way. + +[Illustration: AN UNPLASTERED AND A PLASTERED HOUSE] + +In the autumn of 1910 I made notes concerning eighteen houses. These I +watched during October and November. Thirteen were plastered; a +willow-grown one and a weed-grown one, both of which had thick walls, +were not plastered. The remaining three were not greatly in need of +additional thickness, so received only a scanty covering of sticks. +Two of these were broken into by some animal during the winter, while +none of the others were disturbed. + +Beaver frequently show good judgment in that important matter of +selecting a site for the house. Ice and sediment are two factors with +which the beaver must constantly contend. In the pond the house is +commonly placed in deep water, and apparently where the depth around +it will not be rapidly reduced by the depositing of sediment. Keeping +the house-entrance, the harvest-pile basin, and the canals from +filling with sediment is one of the difficult problems of beaver life. + +To guard against the rapid encroachments of the deposits of sediment, +one group of beaver, apparently with forethought, built a dam that +formed a pond from the waters of a small spring which carried but +little or no sediment. I have noticed a number of instances in which a +pond was made on a small streamlet with greater labor than it would +have required to form a pond in a near-by brook. As there were a +number of other conditions favorable to the brook situation of the +house, the only conclusion I could reach was that these selections for +colony-sites were made with the intention of avoiding the +ever-encroaching sediment,--for in some beaver ponds this sediment is +deposited annually to the depth of several inches. + +Ice is one of the troubles of beaver existence. It is of the utmost +importance to the beaver that he should have his house so situated +that the ice of winter does not close the entrance to it, and also +that the deep water in which his pile of green provisions is deposited +does not freeze solid and thus exclude him from the food-supply. The +ice fills the pond from the top and compels him to be constantly +vigilant to save himself from its encroachments. Many a beaver home +has been built alongside a spring, around which the beaver dredged a +deep hole and in this deposited the winter food-supply. The constant +flow of the spring water prevented thick ice from forming, both around +the food-pile and between it and the house-entrance. + +Large numbers of beaver do not possess a house. Beaver who live +without a dam or pond commonly do not build a house, but are content +with a burrow or a number of burrows in the banks of the waters which +they inhabit. In the severe struggle to live, there is a tendency on +the part of the beaver to avoid the building of dams and houses, as +these reveal their presence and put the aggressive trapper on their +trail. + +Many colonies have both houses and burrows. Apparently the houses were +used in the winter-time, the burrows in summer. One beaver burrow +which I examined was about one foot above the level of the pond and +twelve feet distant from it. The entrance tunnels were sixteen feet in +length, and began a trifle more than three feet under water near the +edge of the pond. This burrow measured five and a half feet long, +about half as wide, and seventeen inches high. It was immediately +beneath the outspreading roots of an Engelmann spruce. The majority +of beaver burrows are about two thirds the size of this one. + +One November I examined more than a score of beaver colonies. There +was no snow, but recent cold had covered the pond with ice and +solidified the miry surroundings. Over the frozen surface I moved +easily about and made many measurements. One of these colonies was a +fairly typical one. The colony was on a swift-running stream that came +down from the snowy heights, three miles distant. The top of Long's +Peak and Mt. Meeker looked down upon the scene. The altitude of this +colony was about nine thousand feet. The ponds were in part surrounded +by semi-boggy willow flats, with here and there a high point or a +stretch of bank that was covered with aspens. The tops of a few huge +boulders thrust up through the water. All around stood guard a tall, +dark forest of lodge-pole pines. These swept up the mountainside, +where they were displaced by a growth of Engelmann spruce which +reached up to timber-line on the heights above. + +This colony had a number of ponds, with a few short canals extending +outward from them. A conical house of mud and slender poles stood in +the larger pond. Above this pond there were half a dozen pondlets, the +uppermost of which was formed across the brook by a semi-circular dam. +Over the outward ends of this dam the water flowed and was caught in +other ponds; these in turn overflowed, the water traversing two other +ponds, one below the other, just above the main one. Below the large +pond were three smaller ones in close succession. The dam of each pond +backed the water against the dam above it. + +The dam of the main pond was two hundred and thirty feet long. Each +end bent upward at a sharp angle and extended a number of yards +upstream. This dam measured five feet at its highest point, but along +the greater portion was only a trifle more than three feet high. The +central part was overgrown with sedge and willows and appeared old; +but the extreme ends appeared new, and probably had been in part +constructed within a few weeks. The whole dam was formed of earth and +slender poles. The pond formed by it was one hundred and eighty feet +wide, and had an average length up and down stream of one hundred and +ten feet. The average depth was only two feet. + +Near the centre of this large pond stood the house, a trifle nearer to +the dam than to the upper edge of the pond. I measured it on the +water- or rather the ice-level. It took twenty-six feet of rope to go +around it. The top of the house rose exactly five feet above the ice. +The house was built of a mixture of sods and willow sticks. The ends +of the sticks here and there thrust out through the three-or-four-inch +covering of mud which the house had recently received. Wondering how +much of the house was in the water below the level of the ice, I +thought to measure the depth by thrusting a pole through the ice to +the bottom. Holding it in an upright position, I raised it and brought +it down with all my strength. The pole went through the ice and so did +I. The water was three feet deep. This depth covered only a small area +around the house and was maintained by frequent digging. The house is +often plastered with this dredged material. Altogether, then, the +house from its lowest foundation on the bottom of the pond to the +conical top was eight feet high. The foundation of this house was made +of turf, masses of grass roots, and a small percentage of mud thickly +reinforced with numerous willow sticks. The floor was mostly sticks. +As the entrance tunnels were filled with water to a point about three +inches below the floor-level, and as these were the only entrances or +openings into the house, friend or foe could enter only by coming up +through one or the other of these water-filled tunnels from the bottom +of the pond. + +The single, circular, dome-like room of this house was four and a half +feet in diameter and about two feet in height. Its ceiling was roughly +formed by a confused interlacing of sticks, which stood at an angle. +The spaces between were filled with root-matted mud. The walls were a +trifle more than two feet thick, except around the conical top. Here +was a small space, mostly of interlacing sticks, the thickness of +which was but one foot. As very little mud had been used in this part, +there were thus left a few tiny air-holes. As I approached, there +could be seen arising from these holes the steamy and scented breath +of the beaver inhabitants within. Since the ventilation of beaver +houses is exceedingly poor, and as this animal probably does not +suffer from tuberculosis, it is possible that ventilation is assisted, +and some of the impure air absorbed by the water, which rises almost +to the floor in the large entrance-holes. + +The early trappers from time to time noted extended general movements +or emigrations among beaver, which embraced an enormous area. They, as +with human emigrants, probably were seeking a safer, better home. Some +of these movements were upstream, others down; commonly away from +civilization, but occasionally toward it. For this the Missouri River +was the great highway. Limited emigrations of this kind still +occasionally occur. + +The annual migration is a different affair. This has been noted for +some hundred and fifty years or more, and probably has gone on for +centuries. This peculiar migration might be called a migratory outing. +In it all members of the colony appear to have taken part, leaving +home in June, scattering as the season advanced. Rambles were made up +and down stream, other beaver settlements visited, brief stays made at +lakes, adventures had up shallow brooks, and daring journeys made on +portages. The country was explored. The dangers and restrictions +imposed during the last twenty-five years appear in some localities to +have checked this movement, and in others to have stopped it +completely. But in most colonies it still goes on, though probably not +usually enjoyed by mothers and children except to a limited extent. + +By the first of September all have returned to the home, or joined +another colony or assembled at the place where a new colony is to be +founded. This annual vacation probably sustained the health of the +colonists; they got away from the parasites and the bad air of their +houses. The outing was taken for the sheer joy of it. Incidentally, it +brought beaver into new territory and acquainted them with desirable +colony-sites and the route thereto,--useful information in case the +colonists were compelled suddenly to abandon the old home. + +It is natural for the beaver to be silent. In silence he becomes +intimate with the elements, and, while listening, hears and +understands all moods and movements that concern him. He is a master +in translating sound. It wakens or warns, threatens or gladdens, and +woos him back to slumberland. + +On the wild frontier in his fortress island home in safety he sits and +sleeps in darkness. He cannot see outside, but the ever-changing +conditions of the surrounding outer world are revealed to him by +continuous and varying sounds that penetrate the thick windowless +walls of his house. He hears the cries of the coyote and the cougar, +the call of moose, the wild and fleeting laugh of the kingfisher, the +elemental melody of the ouzel, and many an echo faintly from afar. He +hears the soft vibrations from the muffled feet of enemies; and, above +his head, the raking threat of claws upon the top of his house. +Endlessly the water slides and gently pours over the dam, and softly +ebbs around the pond's primeval shores. The earthquake thunder warns +of storm, the floods roar; then through day and night the cleared and +calmed stream goes by. The wind booms among the baffling pines, and +the broken and leafless tree falls with a crash! There is silence! +Along the stream's open way through the woods numberless breezes +whisper and pause by the primitive house in the water. + + + + +The Beaver's Engineering + + +Realizing that the supply of aspens near the waters of the Moraine +Colony close to my home was almost exhausted, I wondered whether it +would be possible for the beavers to procure a sufficient supply +downstream, or whether they would deem it best to abandon this old +colony and migrate. + +Out on the plains, where cottonwoods were scarce, the beavers first +cut those close to the colony, then harvested those upstream, +sometimes going a mile for them, then those downstream; but rarely +were the latter brought more than a quarter of a mile. If enemies did +not keep down the population of a colony so situated, it was only a +question of time until the scarcity of the food-supply compelled the +colonists to move either up or down stream and start anew in a place +where food trees could be obtained. But not a move until necessity +drove them! + +Not far from my home in the mountains the inhabitants of two old +beaver colonies endured hardships in order to remain in the old place. +One colony, in order to reach a grove of aspens, dug a canal three +hundred and thirty-four feet long, which had an average depth of +fifteen inches and a width of twenty-six inches. It ended in a grove +of aspens, which were in due time cut down and floated through this +canal into the pond, alongside the beaver house. The other colony +endured dangers and greater hardships. + +During the summer of 1900 an extensive forest fire on the northerly +slope of Long's Peak wrought great hardship among beaver colonies +along the streams in the fire district. This fire destroyed all the +aspens and some of the willows. In order to have food while a new +growth of aspens was developing, the beavers at a colony on the +Bierstadt Moraine were compelled to bring their winter supply of +aspens the distance of a quarter of a mile from an isolated grove that +had escaped the fire. This stood on a bench of the moraine at an +altitude about fifty feet greater than that of the beaver pond. Aspens +from the grove were dragged about two hundred feet, then floated +across a small water-hole, and from this taken up the steep slope of +a ridge, then down to a point about one hundred feet from the pond. +Between this place and the pond was a deep wreckage of fire-killed and +fallen spruces. To cut an avenue through these was too great a task +for the beavers; so with much labor they dug a canal beneath the wide +heap of wreckage, and through this, beneath the gigantic fallen trees, +the harvested aspens were dragged and piled in the pond for winter +food. The gathering of these harvests, even by beavers, must have been +almost a hopeless task. In going thus far from water many of the +harvesters were exposed to their enemies, and it is probable that many +beavers lost their lives. + +[Illustration: THE 334-FOOT CANAL] + +Beavers become strongly attached to localities and especially to their +homes. It is difficult to drive them away from these, but the +exhaustion of the food-supply sometimes compels an entire colony to +abandon the old home-site, migrate, and found a new colony. Some of +the beavers' most audacious engineering works are undertaken for the +purpose of maintaining the food-supply of the colony. It occasionally +happens that the food trees near the water by an old colony become +scarce through excessive cutting, fires, or tree diseases. In cases of +this kind the colonists must go a long distance for their supplies, or +move. They prefer to stay at the old place, and will work for weeks +and brave dangers to be able to do this. They will build a dam, dig a +new canal, clear a difficult right-of-way to a grove of food saplings, +and then drag the harvest a long distance to the water; and now and +then do all these for just one more harvest, one more year in the old +home. + +The Moraine Colony had lost its former greatness. Instead of the +several ponds and the eight houses of which it had consisted twenty +years before, only one house and a single pond remained. The house was +in the deep water of the pond, about twenty feet above the dam. A +vigorous brook from Chasm Lake, three thousand feet above, ran through +the pond and poured over the dam near the house. The colony was on a +delta tongue of a moraine. Here it had been established for +generations. It was embowered in a young pine forest and had ragged +areas of willows around it. A fire and excessive cutting by beavers +had left but few aspens near the water. These could furnish food for +no more than two autumn harvests, and perhaps for only one. Other +colonies had met similar conditions. How would the Moraine Colony +handle theirs? + +The Moraine colonists mastered the situation in their place with the +most audacious piece of work I have ever known beavers to plan and +accomplish. About one hundred and thirty feet south of the old pond +was a grove of aspens. Between these and the pond was a small bouldery +flat that had a scattering of dead and standing spruces and young +lodge-pole pines. A number of fallen spruces lay broken among the +partly exposed boulders of the flat. One day I was astonished to find +that a dam was being built across this flat, and still more astonished +to discover that this dam was being made of heavy sections of +fire-killed trees. Under necessity only will beavers gnaw dead wood, +and then only to a limited extent. Such had been my observations for +years; but here they were cutting dead, fire-hardened logs in a +wholesale manner. Why were they cutting this dead wood, and why a dam +across a rocky flat,--a place across which water never flowed? A dam +of dead timber across a dry flat appeared to be a marked combination +of animal stupidity,--but the beavers knew what they were doing. After +watching their activities and the progress of the dam daily for a +month, I realized that they were doing development work, with the +intention of procuring a food-supply. They completed a dam of dead +timber. + +At least two accidents happened to the builders of this dead-wood dam. +One of these occurred when a tree which the beavers had gnawed off +pinned the beaver that had cut it between its end and another tree +immediately behind the animal. The other accident was caused by a tree +falling in an unexpected direction. This tree was leaning against a +fallen one that was held several feet above the earth by a boulder. +When cut off, instead of falling directly to the earth it slid +alongside the log against which it had been leaning and was shunted +off to one side, falling upon and instantly killing two of the logging +beavers. + +The dam, when completed, was eighty-five feet long. It was about +fifty feet below the main pond and sixty feet distant from the south +side of it. Fifty feet of the new dam ran north and south, parallel to +the old one; then, forming a right angle, it extended thirty-five feet +toward the east. It averaged three feet in height, being made almost +entirely of large chunks, dead-tree cuttings from six to fifteen +inches in diameter and from two to twelve feet long. It appeared a +crude windrow of dead-timber wreckage. + +[Illustration: Moraine Colony with Dead-Wood Dam] + +The day it was completed the builders shifted the scene of activity to +the brook, a short distance below the point where it emerged from the +main pond. Here they placed a small dam across it and commenced work +on a canal, through which they endeavored to lead a part of the waters +of the brook into the reservoir which their dead-wood dam had formed. + +There was a swell or slight rise in the earth of about eighteen inches +between the reservoir and the head of the canal that was to carry +water into it. The swell, I suppose, was not considered by the +beavers. At any rate, they completed about half the length of the +canal, then apparently discovered that water would not flow through +it in the direction desired. Other canal-builders have made similar +errors. The beavers were almost human. This part of the canal was +abandoned and a new start made. The beavers now apparently tried to +overcome the swell in the earth by an artificial work. + +A pondlet was formed immediately below the old pond by building a +sixty-foot bow-like dam, the ends of which were attached to the old +dam. The brook pouring from the old pond quickly filled this new +narrow, sixty-foot-long reservoir. The outlet of this was made over +the bow dam at the point nearest to the waiting reservoir of the +dead-wood dam. The water, where it poured over the outlet of the bow +dam, failed to flow toward the waiting reservoir, but was shed off to +one side by the earth-swell before it. Instead of flowing southward, +it flowed eastward. The beavers remedied this and directed the flow by +building a wing dam, which extended southward from the bow dam at the +point where the water over-poured. This earthwork was about fifteen +feet long, four feet wide, and two high. Along the upper side of this +the water flowed, and from its end a canal was dug to the reservoir. + +About half of the brook was diverted, and this amount of water covered +the flat and formed a pond to the height of the dead-wood dam in less +than three days. Most of the leaky openings in this dam early became +clogged with leaves, trash, and sediment that were carried in by the +water, but here and there were large openings which the beavers mudded +themselves. The new pond was a little more than one hundred feet long +and from forty to fifty feet wide. Its southerly shore flooded into +the edge of the aspen grove which the beavers were planning to +harvest. + +The canal was from four to five feet wide and from eight to twenty +inches deep. The actual distance that lay between the brook and the +shore of the new pond was ninety feet. Though the diverting of the +water was a task, it required less labor than the building of the dam. + +With dead timber and the canal, the beavers had labored two seasons +for the purpose of getting more supplies without abandoning the +colony. If in building the dam they had used the green, easily cut +aspens, they would have greatly reduced the available food-supply. It +would have required most of these aspens to build the dam. The only +conclusion I can reach is that the beavers not only had the +forethought to begin work to obtain a food-supply that would be needed +two years after, but also, at the expense of much labor, actually +saved the scanty near-by food-supply of aspens by making their dam +with the hard, fire-killed trees. + +A large harvest of aspen and willow was gathered for winter. Daily +visits to the scene of the harvest enabled me to understand many of +the methods and much of the work that otherwise would have gone on +unknown to me. Early in the harvest an aspen cluster far downstream +was cut. Every tree in this cluster and every near-by aspen was +felled, dragged to the brook, and in this, with wrestling, pushing, +and pulling, taken upstream through shallow water,--for most mountain +streams are low during the autumn. In the midst of this work the +entrance or inlet of the canal was blocked and the bow dam was cut. +The water in the brook was almost doubled in volume by the closing +of the canal, thereby making the transportation of aspens upstream +less laborious. + +[Illustration: THE DEAD-WOOD DAM, LOOKING SOUTH] + +When the downstream aspens at last reposed in a pile beside the house, +harvesting was briskly begun in the aspens along the shore of the new +pond. Then came another surprise. The bow dam was repaired, and the +canal not only opened, but enlarged so that almost all the water in +the brook was diverted into the canal, through which it flowed into +the new pond. + +The aspens cut on the shore of the new pond were floated across it, +then dragged up the canal into the old pond. Evidently the beavers not +only had again turned the water into the canal that they might use it +in transportation, but also had increased the original volume of water +simply to make this transportation of the aspens as easy as possible. + +Their new works enabled the colonists to procure nearly five hundred +aspens for the winter. All these were taken up the new canal, dragged +over the bow and the main dams, and piled in the water by the house. +In addition to these, the aspens brought from downstream made the +total of the harvest seven hundred and thirty-two trees; and with +these went several hundred small willows. Altogether these made a +large green brush-pile that measured more than a hundred feet in +circumference, and after it settled averaged four feet in depth. This +was the food-supply for the oncoming winter. The upper surface of this +stood about one foot above the surface of the water. + +Five years after the completion of this dead-wood dam it was so +overgrown with willows and grass that the original material--the dead +tree-trunks that formed the major portion of it--was completely +covered over. The new pond was used but one season. All the aspens +that were made available by the dam of the pond were cut in one +harvest. The place is now abandoned, old ponds and new. + + + + + +The Ruined Colony + + +Twenty-six years ago, while studying glaciation on the slope of Long's +Peak, I came upon a cluster of eight beaver houses. These crude +conical mud huts were in a forest pond far up on the mountainside. In +this colony of our first engineers were so many things of interest +that the fascinating study of the dead Ice King's ruins and records +was indefinitely given up in order to observe Citizen Beaver's works +and ways. + +A pile of granite boulders on the edge of the pond stood several feet +above the water-level, and from the top of these the entire colony and +its operations could be seen. On these I spent days observing and +enjoying the autumnal activities of Beaverdom. + +It was the busiest time of the year for these industrious folk. +General and extensive preparations were now being made for the long +winter amid the mountain snows. A harvest of scores of trees was being +gathered and work on a new house was in progress, while the old +houses were receiving repairs. It was a serene autumn day when I came +into the picturesque village of these primitive people. The aspens +were golden, the willows rusty, the grass tanned, and the pines were +purring in the easy air. + +The colony-site was in a small basin amid morainal débris at an +altitude of nine thousand feet above the sea-level. I at once +christened it the Moraine Colony. The scene was utterly wild. Peaks of +crags and snow rose steep and high above all; all around crowded a +dense evergreen forest of pine and spruce. A few small swamps reposed +in this forest, while here and there in it bristled several gigantic +windrows of boulders. A ragged belt of aspens surrounded the several +ponds and separated the pines and spruces from the fringe of +water-loving willows along the shores. There were three large ponds in +succession and below these a number of smaller ones. The dams that +formed the large ponds were willow-grown, earthy structures about four +feet in height, and all sagged downstream. The houses were grouped in +the middle pond, the largest one, the dam of which was more than +three hundred feet long. Three of these lake dwellings stood near the +upper margin, close to where the brook poured in. The other five were +clustered by the outlet, just below which a small willow-grown, +boulder-dotted island lay between the divided waters of the stream. + +A number of beavers were busy gnawing down aspens, while others cut +the felled ones into sections, pushed and rolled the sections into the +water, and then floated them to the harvest piles, one of which was +being made beside each house. Some were quietly at work spreading a +coat of mud on the outside of each house. This would freeze and defy +the tooth and claw of the hungriest or the strongest predaceous enemy. +Four beavers were leisurely lengthening and repairing a dam. A few +worked singly, but most of them were in groups. All worked quietly and +with apparent deliberation, but all were in motion, so that it was a +busy scene. "To work like a beaver!" What a stirring exhibition of +beaver industry and forethought I viewed from my boulder-pile! + +At times upward of forty of them were in sight. Though there was a +general coöperation, yet each one appeared to do his part without +orders or direction. Time and again a group of workers completed a +task, and without pause silently moved off, and began another. +Everything appeared to go on mechanically. It produced a strange +feeling to see so many workers doing so many kinds of work effectively +and automatically. Again and again I listened for the superintendent's +voice; constantly I watched to see the overseer move among them; but I +listened and watched in vain. Yet I feel that some of the patriarchal +fellows must have carried a general plan of the work, and that during +its progress orders and directions that I could not comprehend were +given from time to time. + +The work was at its height a little before mid-day. Nowadays it is +rare for a beaver to work in daylight. Men and guns have prevented +daylight workers from leaving descendants. These not only worked but +played by day. One morning for more than an hour there was a general +frolic, in which the entire population appeared to take part. They +raced, dived, crowded in general mix-ups, whacked the water with +their tails, wrestled, and dived again. There were two or three +play-centres, but the play went on without intermission, and as their +position constantly changed, the merrymakers splashed water all over +the main pond before they calmed down and in silence returned to work. +I gave most attention to the harvesters, who felled the aspens and +moved them, bodily or in sections, by land and water to the harvest +piles. One tree on the shore of the pond, which was felled into the +water, was eight inches in diameter and fifteen feet high. Without +having even a limb cut off, it was floated to the nearest harvest +pile. Another, about the same size, which was procured some fifty feet +from the water, was cut into four sections and its branches removed; +then a single beaver would take a branch in his teeth, drag it to the +water, and swim with it to a harvest pile. But four beavers united to +transport the largest section to the water. They pushed with fore +paws, with breasts, and with hips. Plainly it was too heavy for them. +They paused. "Now they will go for help," I said to myself, "and I +shall find out who the boss is." But to my astonishment one of them +began to gnaw the piece in two, and two more began to clear a narrow +way to the water, while the fourth set himself to cutting down another +aspen. Good roads and open waterways are the rule, and perhaps the +necessary rule, of beaver colonies. + +I became deeply interested in this colony, which was situated within +two miles of my cabin, and its nearness enabled me to be a frequent +visitor and to follow closely its fortunes and misfortunes. About the +hut-filled pond I lingered when it was covered with winter's white, +when fringed with the gentian's blue, and while decked with the +pond-lily's yellow glory. + +Fire ruined it during an autumn of drouth. One morning, while watching +from the boulder-pile, I noticed an occasional flake of ash dropping +into the pond. Soon smoke scented the air, then came the awful and +subdued roar of a forest fire. I fled, and from above the timber-line +watched the storm-cloud of black smoke sweep furiously forward, +bursting and closing to the terrible leaps of red and tattered flames. +Before noon several thousand acres of forest were dead, all leaves +and twigs were in ashes, all tree-trunks blistered and blackened. + +The Moraine Colony was closely embowered in a pitchy forest. For a +time the houses in the water must have been wrapped in flames of +smelter heat. Could these mud houses stand this? The beavers +themselves I knew would escape by sinking under the water. Next +morning I went through the hot, smoky area and found every house +cracked and crumbling; not one was inhabitable. Most serious of all +was the total loss of the uncut food-supply, when harvesting for +winter had only begun. + +Would these energetic people starve at home or would they try to find +refuge in some other colony? Would they endeavor to find a grove that +the fire had missed and there start anew? The intense heat had +consumed almost every fibrous thing above the surface. The piles of +garnered green aspen were charred to the water-line; all that remained +of willow thickets and aspen groves were thousands of blackened +pickets and points, acres of coarse charcoal stubble. It was a +dreary, starving outlook for my furred friends. + +I left the scene to explore the entire burned area. After wandering +for hours amid ashes and charcoal, seeing here and there the seared +carcass of a deer or some other wild animal, I came upon a beaver +colony that had escaped the fire. It was in the midst of several acres +of swampy ground that was covered with fire-resisting willows and +aspens. The surrounding pine forest was not dense, and the heat it +produced in burning did no damage to the scattered beaver houses. + +From the top of a granite crag I surveyed the green scene of life and +the surrounding sweep of desolation. Here and there a sodden log +smouldered in the ashen distance and supported a tower of smoke in the +still air. A few miles to the east, among the scattered trees of a +rocky summit, the fire was burning itself out; to the west the sun was +sinking behind crags and snow; near by, on a blackened limb, a +south-bound robin chattered volubly but hopelessly. + +While I was listening, thinking, and watching, a mountain lion +appeared and leaped lightly upon a block of granite. He was on my +right, about one hundred feet away and about an equal distance from +the shore of the nearest pond. He was interested in the approach of +something. With a nervous switching of his tail he peered eagerly +forward over the crown of the ridge just before him, and then crouched +tensely and expectantly upon his rock. + +A pine tree that had escaped the fire screened the place toward which +the lion looked and where something evidently was approaching. While I +was trying to discover what it could be, a coyote trotted into view. +Without catching sight of the near-by lion, he suddenly stopped and +fixed his gaze upon the point that so interested the crouching beast. +The mystery was solved when thirty or forty beavers came hurrying into +view. They had come from the ruined Moraine Colony. + +I thought to myself that the coyote, stuffed as he must be with the +seared flesh of fire-roasted victims, would not attack them; but a +lion wants a fresh kill for every meal, and so I watched the movements +of the latter. He adjusted his feet a trifle and made ready to spring. +The beavers were getting close; but just as I was about to shout to +frighten him, the coyote leaped among them and began killing. + +In the excitement of getting off the crag I narrowly escaped breaking +my neck. Once on the ground, I ran for the coyote, shouting wildly to +frighten him off; but he was so intent upon killing that a violent +kick in the ribs first made him aware of my presence. In anger and +excitement he leaped at me with ugly teeth as he fled. The lion had +disappeared, and by this time the beavers in the front ranks were +jumping into the pond, while the others were awkwardly speeding down +the slope. The coyote had killed three. If beavers have a language, +surely that night the refugees related to their hospitable neighbors +some thrilling experiences. + +The next morning I returned to the Moraine Colony over the route +followed by the refugees. Leaving their fire-ruined homes, they had +followed the stream that issued from their ponds. In places the +channel was so clogged with fire wreckage that they had followed +alongside the water rather than in it, as is their wont. At one place +they had hurriedly taken refuge in the stream. Coyote tracks in the +scattered ashes explained this. But after going a short distance they +had climbed from the water and again traveled the ashy earth. + +Beavers commonly follow water routes, but in times of emergency or in +moments of audacity they will journey overland. To have followed this +stream down to its first tributary, then up this to where the colony +in which they found refuge was situated, would have required four +miles of travel. Overland it was less than a mile. After following the +stream for some distance, at just the right place they turned off, +left the stream, and dared the overland dangers. How did they know the +situation of the colony in the willows, or that it had escaped fire, +and how could they have known the shortest, best way to it? + +The morning after the arrival of the refugees, work was begun on two +new houses and a dam, which was about sixty feet in length and built +across a grassy open. Green cuttings of willow, aspen, and alder were +used in its construction. Not a single stone or handful of mud was +used. When completed it appeared like a windrow of freshly raked +shrubs. It was almost straight, but sagged a trifle downstream. Though +the water filtered freely through, it flooded the flat above. As the +two new houses could not shelter all the refugees, it is probable that +some of them were sheltered in bank tunnels, while room for others may +have been found in the old houses. + +That winter the colony was raided by some trappers; more than one +hundred pelts were secured, and the colony was left in ruins and +almost depopulated. + +The Moraine Colony site was deserted for a long time. Eight years +after the fire I returned to examine it. The willow growth about the +ruins was almost as thrifty as when the fire came. A growth of aspen +taller than one's head clung to the old shore-lines, while a close +seedling growth of lodge-pole pine throve in the ashes of the old +forest. One low mound, merry with blooming columbine, was the only +house ruin to be seen. + +The ponds were empty and every dam was broken. The stream, in rushing +unobstructed through the ruins, had eroded deeply. This erosion +revealed the records of ages, and showed that the old main dam had +been built on the top of an older dam and a sediment-filled pond. The +second dam was on top of an older one still. In the sediment of the +oldest--the bottom pond--I found a spearhead, two charred logs, and +the skull of a buffalo. Colonies of beaver, as well as those of men, +are often found upon sites that have a tragic history. Beavers, with +Omar, might say,-- + + "When you and I behind the veil are past, + Oh but the long long while the world shall last." + +The next summer, 1893, Moraine site was resettled. During the first +season the colonists spent their time repairing dams and were content +to live in holes. In autumn they gathered no harvest, and no trace of +them could be found after the snow; so it is likely that they had +returned to winter in the colony whence they had come. But early in +the next spring there were reinforced numbers of them at work +establishing a permanent settlement. Three dams were repaired, and in +the autumn many of the golden leaves that fell found lodgment in the +fresh plaster of two new houses. + +In the new Moraine Colony one of the houses was torn to pieces by some +animal, probably a bear. This was before Thanksgiving. About +mid-winter a prospector left his tunnel a few miles away, came to the +colony and dynamited a house, and "got seven of them." Next year two +houses were built on the ruins of the two just fallen. That year's +harvest-home was broken by deadly attacks of enemies. In gathering the +harvest the beavers showed a preference for some aspens that were +growing in a moist place about one hundred feet from the water. +Whether it was the size of these or their peculiar flavor that +determined their election in preference to nearer ones, I could not +determine. One day, while several beavers were cutting here, they were +surprised by a mountain lion which leaped upon and killed one of the +harvesters. The next day the lion surprised and killed another. Two or +three days later a coyote killed one on the same blood-stained spot, +and then overtook and killed two others as they fled for the water. I +could not see these deadly attacks from the boulder-pile, but in each +case the sight of flying beavers sent me rushing upon the scene, where +I beheld the cause of their desperate retreat. But despite dangers +they persisted until the last of these aspens was harvested. During +the winter the bark was eaten from these, and the next season their +clean wood was used in the walls of a new house. + +One autumn I had the pleasure of seeing some immigrants pass me _en +route_ for a new home in the Moraine Colony. Of course they may have +been only visitors, or have come temporarily to assist in the +harvesting; but I like to think of them as immigrants, and a number of +things testified that immigrants they were. One evening I had been +lying on a boulder by the stream below the colony, waiting for a gift +from the gods. It came. Out of the water within ten feet of me +scrambled the most patriarchal, as well as the largest, beaver that I +have ever seen. I wanted to take off my hat to him, I wanted to ask +him to tell me the story of his life, but from long habit I simply lay +still and watched and thought in silence. He was making a portage +round a cascade. As he scrambled up over the rocks, I noticed that he +had but two fingers on his right hand. He was followed, in single +file, by four others; one of these was minus a finger on the left +hand. The next morning I read that five immigrants had arrived in the +Moraine Colony. They had registered their footprints in the muddy +margin of the lower pond. Had an agent been sent to invite these +colonists, or had they come out of their own adventurous spirit? The +day following their arrival I trailed them backward in the hope of +learning whence they came and why they had moved. They had traveled in +the water most of the time; but in places they had come out on the +bank to go round a waterfall or to avoid an obstruction. Here and +there I saw their tracks in the mud and traced them to a beaver +settlement in which the houses and dams had been recently wrecked. A +near-by rancher told me that he had been "making it hot" for all +beavers in his meadow. During the next two years I occasionally saw +this patriarchal beaver or his tracks thereabout. + +It is the custom among old male beavers to idle away two or three +months of each summer in exploring the neighboring brooks and +streams, but they never fail to return in time for autumn activities. +It thus becomes plain how, when an old colony needs to move, some one +in it knows where to go and the route to follow. + +[Illustration: THE MORAINE HOUSE BEFORE AND AFTER ENLARGEMENT] + +The Moraine colonists gathered an unusually large harvest during the +autumn of 1909. Seven hundred and thirty-two sapling aspens and +several hundred willows were massed in the main pond by the largest +house. This pile, which was mostly below the water-line, was three +feet deep and one hundred and twenty-four feet in circumference. Would +a new house be built this fall? This unusually large harvest plainly +told that either children or immigrants had increased the population +of the colony. Of course, a hard winter may also have been expected. + +No; they were not to build a new house, but the old house by the +harvest pile was to be enlarged. One day, just as the evening shadow +of Long's Peak had covered the pond, I peeped over a log on top of the +dam to watch the work. The house was only forty feet distant. Not a +ripple stirred among the inverted peaks and pines in the clear, +shadow-enameled pond. A lone beaver rose quietly in the scene from the +water near the house. Swimming noiselessly, he made a circuit of the +pond. Then for a time, and without any apparent purpose, he swam back +and forth over a short, straight course; he moved leisurely, and +occasionally made a shallow, quiet dive. He did not appear to be +watching anything in particular or to have anything special on his +mind. Yet his eyes may have been scouting for enemies and his mind may +have been full of house plans. Finally he dived deeply, and the next I +saw of him he was climbing up the side of the house addition with a +pawful of mud. + +By this time a number of beavers were swimming in the pond after the +manner of the first one. Presently all began to work. The addition +already stood more than two feet above the water-line. The top of this +was crescent-shaped and was about seven feet long and half as wide. It +was made mostly of mud, which was plentifully reinforced with willow +cuttings and aspen sticks. For a time all the workers busied +themselves in carrying mud and roots from the bottom of the pond and +placing these on the slowly rising addition. Eleven were working at +one time. By and by three swam ashore, each in a different direction +and each a few seconds apart. After a minute or two they returned from +the shore, each carrying or trailing a long willow. These were dragged +to the top of the addition, laid down, and trampled in the mud. +Meantime the mud-carriers kept steadily at their work; again willows +were brought, but this time four beavers went, and, as before, each +was independent of the others. I did not see how this work could go on +without some one bossing the thing, but I failed to detect any beaver +acting as overseer. While there was general coöperation, each acted +independently most of the time and sometimes was apparently oblivious +of the others. These beavers simply worked, slowly, silently, and +steadily; and they were still working away methodically and with +dignified deliberation when darkness hid them. + + + + + +Beaver Pioneers + + +I often wish that an old beaver neighbor of mine would write the story +of his life. Most of the time for eighteen years his mud hut was among +the lilies of Lily Lake, Estes Park, Colorado. He lived through many +wilderness dangers, escaped the strategy of trappers, and survived the +dangerous changes that come in with the home-builder. His life was +long, stirring, and adventurous. If, in the first chapter of his +life-story, he could record some of the strong, thrilling experiences +which his ancestors must have related to him, his book would be all +the better. + +"Flat-top," my beaver neighbor, was a pioneer and a colony-founder. It +is probable that he was born in a beaver house on Wind River, and it +is likely that he spent the first six years of his life along this +crag and aspen bordered mountain stream. The first time I saw him he +was leading an emigrant party out of this stream's steep-walled upper +course. He and his party settled, or rather resettled, Lily Lake. + +Flat-top was the name I gave him because of his straight back. In most +beaver the shoulders swell plumply above the back line after the +outline of the grizzly bear. Along with this peculiarity, which +enabled me to be certain of his presence, was another. This was his +habit of gnawing trees off close to the earth when he felled them. The +finding of an occasional low-cut stump assured me of his presence +during the periods I failed to see him. + +The first beaver settlement in the lake appears to have been made in +the early seventies, long before Flat-top was born, by a pair of +beaver who were full of the pioneer spirit. These settlers apparently +were the sole survivors of a large party of emigrants who tried to +climb the rugged mountains to the lake, having been driven from their +homes by encroaching human settlers. After a long, tedious journey, +full of hardships and dangers, they climbed into the lake that was to +them, for years, a real promised land. + +Driven from Willow Creek, they set off upstream in search of a new +home, probably without knowing of Lily Lake, which was five miles +distant and two thousand feet up a steep, rocky mountain. These +pilgrims had traveled only a little way upstream when they found +themselves the greater portion of the time out of water. This was only +a brook at its best and in most places it was such a shallow, tiny +streamlet that in it they could not dive beyond the reach of enemies +or even completely cool themselves. In stretches the water spread +thinly over a grassy flat or a smooth granite slope; again it was lost +in the gravel; or, murmuring faintly, pursued its way out of sight +beneath piles of boulder,--marbles shaped by the Ice King. Much of the +time they were compelled to travel upon land exposed to their enemies. +Water-holes in which they could escape and rest were long distances +apart. + +This plodding, perilous five-mile journey which the beaver made up the +mountain to the lake would be easy and care-free for an animal with +the physical make-up of a bear or a wolf, but with the beaver it is +not surprising that only two of the emigrants survived this supreme +trial and escaped the numerous dangers of the pilgrimage. + +Lily Lake is a shallow, rounded lily garden that reposes in a glacier +meadow at an altitude of nine thousand feet; its golden pond-lilies +often dance among reflected snowy peaks, while over it the granite +crags of Lily Mountain rise several hundred feet. A few low, sedgy, +grassy acres border half the shore, while along the remainder are +crags, aspen groves, willow-clumps, and scattered pines. Its waters +come from springs in its western margin and overflow across a low +grassy bar on its curving eastern shore. + +It was autumn when these beaver pioneers came to Lily Lake's primitive +and poetic border. The large green leaves of the pond-lily rested upon +the water, while from the long green stems had fallen the sculptured +petals of gold; the willows were wearing leaves of brown and bronze, +and the yellow tremulous robes of the aspens glowed in the golden +sunlight. + +These fur-clad pioneers made a dugout--a hole in the bank--and busily +gathered winter food until stopped by frost and snow; then, almost +care-free, they dozed away the windy winter days while the lake was +held in waveless ice beneath the drifting snow. + +The next summer a house was built in the lily pads near the shore. +Here a number of children were born during the few tranquil years that +followed. These times came to an end one bright midsummer day. Lord +Dunraven had a ditch cut in the outlet rim of the lake with the +intention of draining it that his fish ponds, several miles below in +his Estes Park game-preserve, might have water. A drouth had prevailed +for several months, and a new water-supply must be had or the fish +ponds would go dry. The water poured forth through the ditch, and the +days of the colony appeared to be numbered. + +A beaver must have water for safety and for the ease of movement of +himself and his supplies. He is skillful in maintaining a dam and in +regulating the water-supply; these two things require much of his +time. In Lily Lake the dam and the water question had been so nicely +controlled by nature that with these the colonists had had nothing to +do. However, they still knew how to build dams, and water-control had +not become a lost art. The morning after the completion of the +drainage ditch, a man was sent up to the lake to find out why the +water was not coming down. A short time after the ditch-diggers had +departed, the lowering water had aroused the beaver, who had promptly +placed a dam in the mouth of the ditch. The man removed this dam and +went down to report. The beaver speedily replaced it. Thrice did the +man return and destroy their dam, but thrice did the beaver promptly +restore it. + +The dam-material used in obstructing the ditch consisted chiefly of +the peeled sticks from which the beaver had eaten the bark in winter; +along with these were mud and grass. The fourth time that the ditch +guard returned, he threw away all the material in the dam and then set +some steel traps in the water by the mouth of the ditch. The first two +beaver who came to reblockade the ditch were caught in these traps and +drowned while struggling to free themselves. Other beaver heroically +continued the work that these had begun. The cutting down of saplings +and the procuring of new material made their work slow, very slow, +in the face of the swiftly escaping water; when the ditch was at last +obstructed, a part of the material which formed this new dam consisted +of the traps and the dead bodies of the two beaver who had bravely +perished while trying to save the colony. + +[Illustration: HOUSE IN LILY LAKE] + +The ditch guard returned with a rifle, and came to stay. The first +beaver to come within range was shot. The guard again removed the dam, +made a fire about twenty feet from the ditch, and planned to spend the +night on guard, rifle in hand. Toward morning he became drowsy, sat +down by the fire, heard the air in the pines at his back, watched the +star-sown water, and finally fell asleep. While he thus slept, with +his rifle across his lap, the beaver placed another--their +last--obstruction before the outrushing water. + +On awakening, the sleeper tore out the dam and stood guard over the +ditch. All that afternoon a number of beaver hovered about, watching +for an opportunity to stop the water again. Their opportunity never +came, and three who ventured too near the rifleman gave up their +lives,--reddening the clear water with their life-blood in vain. + +The lake was drained, and the colonists abandoned their homes. One +night, a few days after the final attempt to blockade the ditch, an +unwilling beaver emigrant party climbed silently out of the uncovered +entrance of their house and made their way quietly, slowly, beneath +the stars, across the mountain, descending thence to Wind River, where +they founded a new colony. + +Winter came to the old lake-bed, and the lily roots froze and died. +The beaver houses rapidly crumbled, and for a few years the +picturesque ruins of the beaver settlement, like many a settlement +abandoned by man, stood pathetically in the midst of wilderness +desolation. Slowly the water rose to its old level in the lake, as the +outlet ditch gradually filled with swelling turf and drifting sticks +and trash. Then the lilies came back with rafts of green and boats of +gold to enliven this lakelet of repose. + +One autumn morning, while returning to my cabin after a night near the +stars on Lily Mountain, I paused on a crag to watch the changing +morning light down Wind River Cañon. While thus engaged, Flat-top and +a party of colonists came along a game trail within a few yards of me, +evidently bound for the lake, which was only a short distance away. I +silently followed them. This was my introduction to Flat-top. + +On the shore these seven adventurers paused for a moment to behold the +scene, or, possibly, to dream of empire; then they waddled out into +the water and made a circuit of the lake. Probably Flat-top had been +here before as an explorer. Within two hours after their arrival these +colonists began building for a permanent settlement. + +It was late to begin winter preparation. The clean, white aspens had +shed their golden leaves and stood waiting to welcome the snows. This +lateness may account for the makeshift of a hut which the colonists +constructed. This was built against the bank with only one edge in the +water; the entrance to it was a twelve-foot tunnel that ended in the +lake-bottom where the water was two feet deep. + +The beaver were collecting green aspen and willow cuttings in the +water by the tunnel-entrance when the lake froze over. Fortunately for +the colonists, with their scanty supply of food, the winter was a +short one, and by the first of April they were able to dig the roots +of water plants along the shallow shore where the ice had melted. One +settler succumbed during the winter, but by summer the others had +commenced work on a permanent house, which was completed before +harvest time. + +I had a few glimpses of the harvest-gathering and occasionally saw +Flat-top. One evening, while watching the harvesters, I saw three new +workers. Three emigrants--from somewhere--had joined the colonists. A +total of fifteen, five of whom were youngsters, went into winter +quarters,--a large, comfortable house, a goodly supply of food, and a +location off the track of trappers. The cold, white days promised only +peace. But an unpreventable catastrophe came before the winter was +half over. + +One night a high wind began to bombard the ice-bound lake with heavy +blasts. The force of these intermittent gales suggested that the wind +was trying to dislodge the entire ice covering of the lake; and indeed +that very nearly happened. + +Before the crisis came, I went to the lake, believing it to be the +best place to witness the full effects of this most enthusiastic wind. +Across the ice the gale boomed, roaring in the restraining forest +beyond. These broken rushes set the ice vibrating and the water +rolling and swelling beneath. During one of these blasts the swelling +water burst the ice explosively upward in a fractured ridge entirely +across the lake. In the next few minutes the entire surface broke up, +and the wind began to drive the cakes upon the windward shore. + +A large flatboat cake was swept against the beaver house, sheared it +off on the water-line, and overturned the conelike top into the lake. +The beaver took refuge in the tunnel which ran beneath the +lake-bottom. This proved a death-trap, for its shore end above the +water-line was clogged with ice. As the lake had swelled and surged +beneath the beating of the wind, the water had gushed out and streamed +back into the tunnel again and again, until ice formed in and closed +the outer entrance. Against this ice four beaver were smothered or +drowned. I surmised the tragedy but was helpless to prevent it. +Meanwhile the others doubled back and took refuge upon the ruined +stump of their home. From a clump of near-by pines I watched this wild +drama. + +Less than half an hour after the house was wrecked, these indomitable +animals began to rebuild it. Lashed by icy waves, beaten by the wind, +half-coated with ice, these home-loving people strove to rebuild their +home. Mud was brought from the bottom of the pond and piled upon the +shattered foundation. This mud set--froze--almost instantly on being +placed. They worked desperately, and from time to time I caught sight +of Flat-top. Toward evening it appeared possible that the house might +be restored, but, just as darkness was falling, a roaring gust struck +the lake and a great swell threw the new part into the water. + +The colonists gave up the hopeless task and that night fled down the +mountain. Two were killed before they had gone a quarter of a mile. +Along the trail were three other red smears upon the crusted snow; +each told of a death and a feast upon the wintry mountainside among +the solemn pines. Flat-top with five others finally gained the Wind +River Colony, from which he had led his emigrants two years before. + +One day the following June, while examining the lilies in the lake, I +came upon a low, freshly cut stump;--Flat-top had returned. A number +of colonists were with him and all had come to stay. + +All sizable aspen that were within a few yards of the water had been +cut away, but at the southwest corner of the lake, about sixty feet +from the shore, was an aspen thicket. Flat-top and his fellow workers +cut a canal from the lake through a low, sedgy flat into this aspen +thicket. The canal was straight, about fourteen inches deep and +twenty-six inches wide. Its walls were smoothly cut and most of the +excavated material was piled evenly on one side of the canal and about +eight inches from it. It had an angular, mechanical appearance, and +suggested the work not of a beaver, but of man, and that of a very +careful man too. + +Down this canal the colonists floated the timbers used in building +their two houses. On the completion of the houses, the home-builders +returned to the grove and procured winter supplies. In most cases the +small aspen were floated to the pile between the houses with an adept +skill, without severing the trunk or cutting off a single limb. + +The colonists had a few years of ideal beaver life. One summer I came +upon Flat-top and a few other beaver by the brook that drains the +lake, and at a point about half a mile below its outlet. It was along +this brook that Flat-top's intrepid ancestors had painfully climbed to +establish the first settlement in the lake. Commonly each summer +several beaver descended the mountain and spent a few weeks of +vacation along Wind River. Invariably they returned before the end of +August; and autumn harvest-gathering usually began shortly after their +return. + +Year after year the regularly equipped trappers passed the lake +without stopping. The houses did not show distinctly from the trail, +and the trappers did not know that there were beaver in this place. +But this peaceful, populous lake was not forever to remain immune +from the wiles of man, and one day it was planted with that barbaric, +cruel torture-machine, the steel trap. + +A cultured consumptive, who had returned temporarily to nature, was +boarding at a ranch house several miles away. While out riding he +discovered the colony and at once resolved to depopulate it. The +beaver ignored his array of traps until he enlisted the services of an +old trapper, whose skill sent most of the beaver to their death before +the sepia-colored catkins appeared upon the aspens. Flat-top escaped. + +The ruinous raid of the trappers was followed by a dry season, and +during the drouth a rancher down the mountain came up prospecting for +water. He cut a ditch in the outlet ridge of the lake, and out gushed +the water. He started home in a cheerful mood, but long before he +arrived, the "first engineers" had blocked his ditch. During the next +few days and nights the rancher made many trips from his house to the +lake, and when he was not in the ditch, swearing, and opening it, the +beaver were in it shutting off the water. + +From time to time I dropped around to see the struggle, one day coming +upon the scene while the beaver were completing a blockade. For a time +the beaver hesitated; then they partly resumed operations and carried +material to the spot, but without showing themselves entirely above +water. When it appeared that they must have enough to complete the +blockade, I advanced a trifle nearer so as to have a good view while +they placed the accumulated material. For a time not a beaver showed +himself. By and by an aged one climbed out of the water, pretending +not to notice me, and deliberately piled things right and left until +he had completed the ditch-damming to his satisfaction. This act was +audacious and truly heroic. The hero was Flat-top. + +In this contest with the rancher, the beaver persisted and worked so +effectively that they at last won and saved their homes, in the face +of what appeared to be an unconquerable opposition. + +A little while after this incident, a home-seeker came along, and, +liking the place, built a cabin in a clump of pines close to the +southern shore. Though he was a gray old man without a family, I +imagined he would exterminate the beaver and looked upon him with a +lack of neighborly feeling. + +Several months went by, and I had failed to call upon him, but one day +while passing I heard him order a trapper off the place. This order +was accompanied by so strong a declaration of principles--together +with a humane plea for the life of every wild animal--that I made +haste to call that evening. + +One afternoon in a pine thicket, close to the lake-shore, I came upon +two gray wolves, both devouring beaver, which had met their death +while harvesting aspens for winter. The following spring I had a more +delightful glimpse of life in the wilds. Within fifty feet of the +lake-shore stood a large pine stump that rose about ten feet from the +ground. Feeling that I should escape notice if I sat still on the top, +I climbed up. Though it was mid-forenoon, the beaver came out of the +lake and wandered about nibbling here and there at the few green +plants of early spring. They did not detect me. They actually appeared +to enjoy themselves. This is the only time that I ever saw a beaver +fully at ease and apparently happy on land. In the midst of their +pleasures, a flock of mountain sheep came along and mingled with them. +The beaver paused and stared; now and then a sheep would momentarily +stare at a beaver, or sniff the air as though he did not quite like +beaver odor. In less than a minute the flock moved on, but just as +they started, a beaver passed in front of the lead ram, who made a +playful pretense of a butt at him; to this the beaver paid not the +slightest heed. + +During the homesteader's second summer he concluded to raise the +outlet ridge, deepen the water, and make a fish pond of the lake. +Being poor, he worked alone with wheelbarrow and shovel. The beaver +evidently watched the progress of the work, and each morning their +fresh footprints showed in the newly piled earth. Shortly before the +dam was completed, the homesteader was called away for a few days, and +on his return he was astonished to find that the beaver had completed +his dam! The part made by the beaver suited him as to height and +length, so he covered it over with earth and allowed it to remain. +His work in turn was inspected and apparently approved by the beaver. + +How long does a beaver live? Trappers say from fifteen to fifty years. +I had glimpses of Flat-top through eighteen years, and he must have +been not less than four years of age when I first met him. This would +make his age twenty-two years; but he may have been six years of +age--he looked it--the morning he first led emigrants into Lily Lake; +and he may have lived a few years after I saw him last. But only the +chosen few among the beaver can succeed in living as long as Flat-top. +The last time I saw him was the day he dared me and blockaded the +drain ditch and stopped the outrushing water. + +Flat-top has vanished, and the kind old homesteader has gone to his +last long sleep; but the lake still remains, and still there stands a +beaver house among the pond-lilies. + + + + +The Colony in Winter + + +In the Medicine Bow Mountains one December day, I came upon a beaver +house that was surrounded by a pack of wolves. These beasts were +trying to break into the house. Apparently an early autumn snow had +blanketed the house and thus prevented its walls from freezing. The +soft condition of the walls, along with the extreme hunger of the +wolves, led to this assault. Two of these animals were near the top of +the house clawing away at a rapid rate. Now and then one of the sticks +or poles in the house-wall was encountered, and at this the wolf would +bite and tear furiously. Occasionally one of the wolves caught a +resisting stick in his teeth, and, leaning back, shook his head, +endeavoring with all his might to tear it out. A number of wolves lay +about expectant; a few sat up eagerly on haunches, while others moved +about snarling, driving the others off a few yards, to be in turn +driven off themselves. Shortly before they discovered me, there was a +fierce fight on top of the house, in which several mixed. + +Even though they had broken into the house, it would have availed them +nothing, for in this, as in all old colonies, there were safety +tunnels from the house which extended beneath the pond to points on +shore. In these tunnels the beaver find safety, if by any means the +house is ruined. Although carnivorous animals are fond of beaver +flesh, they rarely take the useless trouble of digging into a house. +Occasionally a wolverine or a bear may dig into a thin-walled house or +one not frozen, then, after breaking in, lie in wait, and endeavor to +make a capture while the beaver are repairing the hole. Beaver are +more secure from enemies during the winter than at any other time. It +is while felling a tree far from the water or while following a +shallow stream that most beaver are captured by their enemies. + +Many a time in winter I have made a pleasant visit to a beaver colony. +One day, a few hours after a heavy snowfall, I came out of a dark +forest and stood for a time on the edge of the snow-covered pond. +Around were the firs and spruces of the forest, moveless as statues +and each a pointed cone of snow. Around the small snowy plain of the +pond, the drooping snow-entangled willows held their heads together in +contented and thoughtful silence. Everything was serene. + +[Illustration: HOUSE, FOOD-PILE, POND, AND DAM IN WINTER] + +A clean fox track led from the woods in a straight line across the +snowy surface of the pond to the house, which stood near the centre of +this smooth white opening. The tracks encircled the house and ascended +to the top of it, where the record imprinted in the snow told that +here he watchfully rested. Descending, he had sniffed at the bushy +tips of the winter food-pile that thrust up through the ice, then +crossed the dam to plunge into the snowy tangle of willows. + +Water was still pouring and gurgling down a steep beaver slide. This +was ice-and-snow-covered except at two points where the swift +splashing water dashed intermittently from a deep icy vent. While I +was examining the beauty of the upbuilding icy buttresses by one of +the vents, a water-ouzel came forth and alighted almost within reach. +I stood still. After giving a few of his nodding bows, he reëntered +the vent. Presently he emerged from the lower vent and, alighting +upon an ice-coated boulder, indifferent to the gray sky from which +scattered flakes were slowly falling and despite a temperature of five +below zero, he sang low and sweetly for several seconds. + +Beaver do not surrender themselves to the confines of a house and pond +until cold solidly covers the pond with a roof of ice. The time of +this is commonly about the first of December, but the date is of +course, in a measure, dependent upon latitude, altitude, and the +peculiar weather conditions of each year. Most beaver return to the +old colony, or start a new one by the first of September. They have +had a merry rambling summer and energetically take hold to have the +house and dam ready and a harvest stored by the time winter begins. + +But they are not always ready. Enemies may harass them, low water +delay them, or an unusually early winter or even a heavy snow may so +hamper them that, despite greatest effort, the ice puts a time lock +upon the pond and closes them in for the winter without sufficient +supplies. + +Early one October an early snowfall worked hardship in several +colonies near my home. Fortunately the ponds were not deeply frozen, +and those colonies which had aspen groves close to the water succeeded +in felling and dragging in sufficient food-supplies for the winter. As +snow drifted into the groves, many of the trees harvested were cut +from the tops of snowdrifts, and thus left high stumps. The following +summer a number of these stood four feet above the earth and presented +a striking appearance alongside the sixteen-inch stumps of normal +height. + +One of these storm-caught colonies fared badly. The inhabitants were +obliged to go a long distance from the water for trees, and their all +too scanty harvest was gathered with some loss of life. Apparently +both wolves and lions discovered the unfortunate predicament of the +harvesters, and lay in wait to catch them as they floundered slowly +through the snow. The following winter these colonists tunneled +through the bottom--perhaps the least frozen part of the dam--and came +forth for food long before the break-up of the ice. The water drained +from the pond, and after the ice had melted, the bottom of the pond +revealed a torn-up condition as though the starving winter inmates had +dug out for food every root and rootstock to be found in the bottom. + +While visiting ponds at the beginning of winter, I have many times +noticed that, shortly after the pond was solidly frozen over, a hole +was made through the dam just below the water-surface of the pond. +This lowered the water-level two inches or more. Did this slight +lowering of the water have to do with the ventilation of the +ice-covered pond, or was it to put a check on deep freezing, or for +both purposes? + +In the majority of cases these holes were made from ponds which, +during the winter, received but a meagre inflow of fresh water. +Naturally, ponds receiving a strong inflow of water would be better +ventilated, and would freeze less swiftly and deeply than those whose +waters became stagnant. This drawing-off of water after a few inches +of ice had formed, would, in some places, despite the settling of the +ice, form an air blanket that would delay freezing, and thus possibly +prevent the ice from forming so thickly. The air admitted by drawing +off the water would be inclosed beneath the ice, and might thus be +helpful to the beaver inclosed in house and pond. In only a few cases +were these holes made from ponds which had subway tunnels,--tunnels +which run from alongside the house through the bottom of the pond to a +point above water-level on the shore. In a few instances the beaver, I +do not know how many, came out of this hole, cut and ate a few twigs, +and then returned and closed it. Twice this was used as a way out by +beaver who emerged and went to other colonies. In one case the beaver +entered the other pond by making a hole through the dam. In the other +they entered the pond through a subway tunnel. While these holes which +lower the pond-level may have chiefly to do with ventilation, or may +be for the purpose of putting a check on freezing, my evidence is not +ample enough for final conclusions. + +A sentence of close confinement for about a third of the year for an +animal that breathes air and uses pure water, is simply one of the +strange ways that work out with nature. While winter lasts, a beaver +must spend his time either in the dark, ill-ventilated house or in the +water of the pond. Apparently he does much sleeping and possibly has +a dull time of it. No news, no visitors, and apparently nothing to do! +Still a beaver has food, and when dangers surround the wild folk +outside the pond's roof of glass, he would be considered a good risk +for life insurance. + +Although the pond is commonly covered with snow, or the ice curtained +with air bubbles, there have been numerous times during which I have +had clear views into the water, and could see and enjoy all that was +going on within, as completely as though looking at fish or turtles +through the glass walls of an aquarium. Often I have peered through +the ice which covered the most used place of a winter beaver +pond,--the area between the house-entrance and the food-pile. The +thinness of the ice over this place was maintained by spring-water +which came up through the bottom, and the beaver had so arranged their +affairs that they made the best use of this shallow-freezing water. Of +course most ponds are without springs. + +Many a time I have seen a beaver come out of the doorway of his house +and go swimming toward the food-pile with his hands against his +breast. At the pile, if there was nothing small or short enough, he +set to work and gnawed it off. The piece secured was taken into the +doorway either in his hands or in his teeth. Afterward a beaver--the +same one, I suppose--came out of the doorway, and cast the clean bone +of the stick, from which the bark had been eaten, into the bottom of +the pond. + +When there is nothing else to do, the beaver apparently comes into the +pond a few times each day for a swim. In the midst of swimming he +rises at times to the under surface of the ice and, with his nose +against it, exhales a quantity of air. After remaining with nose at +this point a few seconds, the action of the air bubbles indicates that +he is inhaling the purified air. + +The rootstocks of the water-lily are sometimes dug from the bottom of +the pond. At other times the beaver eats the stalks of plants that +grow in the water, or digs out willow or other roots around the edge +of the pond. Numbers of trout frequently lie in the water close to the +doorway of a beaver house or around the food-pile. Possibly the +beaver dispense tidbits of food that are liked by the trout. +Occasionally grubs fall from the holes in wood from which beaver have +eaten the bark. While beaver are digging in the bottom of the pond +they doubtless unearth food-scraps that are welcome to trout, for +these often hover in numbers on the outskirts of the muddy water which +beaver roil while digging. + +Although it appears that beaver have dull winters with but little to +do but eat, sleep, and swim, it is probable that some of their time is +spent at work. A part of their tunneling and pond-bottom canal-digging +is done in winter. I have known of their extending canals in the +bottom of the pond and making submarine tunnels while the pond was +ice-covered. + +There are times when the dam has sprung a leak and must be repaired on +the inside beneath the ice. Early thaws and spring freshets sometimes +wreck a dam beyond repair, or do extensive damage to the house or dam +at the time when beaver enemies are likely to be at their leanest. The +house and dam are sometimes ruined when the streams are so low and icy +that it is not safe for beaver to go about. I know of two colonies +that were crushed out of existence by snow-slides. + +The dam is on rare occasions broken by late spring ice-jams. Sometimes +the ice-cakes pile up on the dam and raise the water in the pond to +such a height that it rises in the house and drives the beaver forth. +A few beaver houses that are situated in places where the ice or +spring floods may raise the water much above normal level are shaped +to meet this trouble. The house is built higher and the room +internally is twice the usual height. Thus there is space for the +beaver to build a "platform bed" on the floor and thus raise +themselves a foot or more above the common level. Despite all pains, +floods sometimes drive beaver to the housetops. + +By laying up supplies, and by the help of artificial pond, canal, and +house, the beaver is able to spend his winter without hunger and with +comfort and far greater safety than his neighbors. The winds may blow +and blinding snow or flying limbs may endanger those outside; snow may +bury the forage of bird and deer, and make the movement of beasts of +prey slow and difficult; the cold may freeze and freeze and strew the +wilds with lean and frozen forms; but the beaver beneath ice and snow +shelter serenely spends the days with comfort and safety. + +The winter, with its days long or short, never comes to an end, +however, quite early enough to suit the beaver. They emerge from the +pond at the earliest moment that frozen conditions will allow. If +their subway is choked with ice, and food becomes exhausted, they will +sometimes bore holes through the base of the dam. + +Apparently, too, holes of this kind are bored through, or a section +cut through the dam to the bottom, for the purpose of completely +draining the pond. As this appears to be most often done with ponds +that are full of stagnant water, or water almost stagnant, this +draining may be a part of the beaver's sanitary work,--done for the +purpose of getting filth and stale water out and also that the sour +bottom may be sterilized by sun and wind. + +Conditions determine the length of time before the dam is repaired and +the pond refilled. In some cases this is done after the lapse of a few +weeks and in others not until autumn. Ponds that have large pure +streams running through them do not need this emptying, but +occasionally they accidentally have it. Most beaver colonies are +deserted in summer, and fall thus into temporary decline. + +By late summer or early autumn the beaver have assembled at the place +where the winter is to be spent. There are patriarchs, youngsters, and +those in the prime of life. Around the old home are many who set forth +from it when the violets were blooming, when the grass was at its +greenest, and when mated birds were building. During the summer a few +perished, while others cast their lot with other established colonies. +A few of the younger make a start for themselves in new scenes,--found +a new colony. Again the dam is repaired and the house recovered; again +the harvest home, and again a primitive home-building family are +housed in a hut that willing hands have fashioned. Again the pond +freezes, and again the snow falls upon a home that stands in a valley +where countless generations of beaver have lived through ice-bound +winters and the ever-changing happy seasons. + + + + +The Original Conservationist + + +To "work like a beaver" is an almost universal expression for +energetic and intelligent persistence, but who realizes the magnitude +of the beaver's works? What he has accomplished is not only monumental +but useful to man. He was the original Conservationist. An interesting +and valuable book could be written concerning the earth as influenced +and benefited by the labors of the beaver. The beaver is intimately +associated with the natural resources, soil, and water. His work is +not yet done, and along the sources of innumerable streams he will +ever be needed to save soil, to regulate stream-flow, and to provide +pools for the fish. + +The beaver's conservation work is accomplished by means of the dams he +constructs across streams of flowing water and the ponds that are thus +formed. These dams and ponds render a number of services: first, they +save soil; second, they check erosion; third, they reduce flood +damage; fourth, they store water and help to sustain stream-flow; +fifth, they provide water-holes for fish; and sixth, they are helpful +in maintaining deep waterways by reducing the extremes of both high +and low water, and also by reducing the quantity of sediment carried +down into river-channels. + +I had enjoyed the ways of "our first engineers" before it dawned upon +me that their works might be useful to man, and that the beaver +through his constructive handling of the natural resources might +justly be called a conservationist. One dry winter the stream through +the Moraine Colony ran low and froze to the bottom, and the only trout +in it that survived were those in the deep holes of beaver ponds. +These ponds offer many advantages to fish multiplication. Much food +acceptable to the fish is swept into these ponds. Altogether a beaver +pond is an excellent local habitation for fish. + +One gray day while I was examining a beaver colony there came another +demonstration of the usefulness of beaver ponds. The easy rain of two +days ended in a heavy downpour--a deluge upon the mountainside a mile +or so upstream. There was almost nothing on this mountain either to +absorb or delay the excess of water which was speedily shed into the +stream below. Flooding down the stream's channel above the beaver +pond, came a roaring avalanche of water, or water-slide, with a +rubbish-filled front that was five or six feet high. This expanded as +it rolled into the pond, and swept far out on the sides, while the +water-front, greatly lowered, rushed over the dam. A half a dozen +ponds immediately below sufficed so to check the speed of this water +and so greatly to reduce its volume that as it poured over the last +dam of this colony it was no longer a flood. + +The regulation of stream-flow is important. There are only a few rainy +days each year, and all the water that flows to the sea through +river-channels falls during these few rainy days. The instant the +water reaches the earth it is hurried away by gravity, and unless +there are factors to delay this run-off, the rivers would naturally +contain water only on the rainy days and for a little while +thereafter. A beaver dam and pond together form a factor of importance +in the keeping of streams ever flowing. The pond is a reservoir which +catches and retains some of the water coming into it during rainy days +and which delays the water-flow through it. A beaver pond is a leaky +reservoir, a kind of spring as it were, and if stored full during +rainy days the leakage from it will help maintain stream-flow below +during the dry weather. Beaver works thus tend to distribute to +streams a moderate quantity of water each day. In other words they +spread out or distribute the water of the few rainy days through all +the days of the year. + +A river which flows steadily throughout the year is of inestimable +value to mankind. If floods sweep a river, they do damage. If low +water comes, the wheels of steamers and of factories cease to move, +and a dry river-channel means both damage and death. Numerous beaver +colonies along the sources of countless streams that rise in the hills +and the mountains would be helpful in equalizing the flow of these +streams. I hope and believe that before many years every rushing +care-free brook that springs from a great watershed will be steadied +in a poetic pond that is made, and that will be maintained by our +patient, persevering friend the beaver. + +In the West beaver are peculiarly useful at stream-sources, where +their ponds store flood waters that may later be used for stock water +or for irrigation purposes. There are a number of localities in New +Mexico, South Dakota, and elsewhere in the West where beaver receive +the utmost protection and encouragement from ranchers, whose herds are +benefited by water conveniently stored in beaver ponds. A few power +companies in the country have commenced to stock with beaver the +watersheds which supply them with water. They do this because they +realize that countless small ponds or reservoirs are certain to be +constructed by these little conservationists. + +Running water dissolves and erodes away the earthy materials with +which it comes in contact. The presence of a beaver pond and dam +across a stream's highway prevents the wearing and the carrying away +of material. They not only prevent erosion or wearing away, but they +take soil and sediment from the water which comes to them and thus +cause an upbuilding. Hence the presence of beaver ponds along streams +causes an accumulation of sediment and soil. In time these fill rocky +channels and cañons, widen and lengthen valleys, and thus extend the +productive area of the earth. + +Beaver ponds are settling-basins, and in them are deposited the +heavier matter brought in by the stream. In time the pond is filled, +and if the beaver do not raise the height of the dam, the accumulated +earthy matter becomes covered with flowers or forests. + +On the headwaters of the Arkansas River in Colorado some placer miners +found gold in the sediment of an inhabited beaver pond. In washing out +the deposit of the pond they broke into an enormous amount of loose +material beneath, that apparently had been piled in there by glacial +action. This material, when removed, was found to have been resting in +an ancient beaver pond that was about thirty feet below the one at the +surface. + +[Illustration: WHERE BEAVER FORMERLY LIVED AND SPREAD SOIL] + +A few centuries ago there were millions of beaver ponds in North +America; most of these were long since filled with sediment. Since +then, too, countless others have been formed and filled. This +soil-saving and soil-spreading still goes ever on wherever there is a +beaver pond. + +Many of the richest tillable lands of New England were formed by the +artificial works of the beaver. There are hundreds of valleys in +Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, and other States whose rich +surface was spread upon them by the activities of beaver through +generations. In the Southern States and in the mountains of the West, +the numbers of beaver meadows are beyond computation. The aggregate +area of rich soil-deposits in the United States for which we are +indebted to the beaver is beyond belief, and probably amounts to +millions of acres. + +The beaver have thus prepared the way for forests and meadows, +orchards and grain-fields, homes and school-houses. In the golden age +of the beaver, their countless colonies clustered all over our land. +These primeval folk then gathered their harvest. Innumerable beaver +ponds, which then shone everywhere in the sun, slowly filled with +deposited, outspreading soil,--and vanished. Elm avenues now arch +where the low-growing willow drooped across the canal, and a populous +village stands upon the seat of a primitive and forgotten colony. + +A live beaver is more valuable to mankind than a dead one. As trappers +in all sections of the country occasionally catch a beaver, it is +probable that there still are straggling ones scattered along streams +all the way from salt water up to timber-line, twelve thousand feet +above sea-level. These remaining beaver may be exterminated; but if +protected they would multiply and colonize stream-sources. Here they +would practise conservation. Their presence would reduce river and +harbor appropriations and make rivers more manageable, useful, and +attractive. It would pay us to keep beaver colonies in the heights. +Beaver would help keep America beautiful. A beaver colony in the wilds +gives a touch of romance and a rare charm to the outdoors. The works +of the beaver have ever intensely interested the human mind. Beaver +works may do for children what schools, sermons, companions, and even +home sometimes fail to do,--develop the power to think. No boy or girl +can become intimately acquainted with the ways and works of these +primitive folk without having the eyes of observation opened, and +acquiring a permanent interest in the wide world in which we live. A +race which can produce mothers and fathers as noble as those beaver in +the Grand Cañon who offered their lives hoping thereby to save their +children is needed on this earth. The beaver is the Abou-ben-Adhem of +the wild. May his tribe increase! + + +THE END + + + + +Bibliographical Note + + +Beaver literature is scarce. The book which easily excels is "The +American Beaver and his Works," by Lewis H. Morgan. Samuel Hearne has +an excellent paper concerning the beaver in "Journey from Prince of +Wales Fort to the Northern Ocean," published in 1795. Good accounts of +the beaver are given in the following books: "Beavers: their Ways," by +Joseph Henry Taylor; "Castorologia," by Horace T. Martin; +"Shaggycoat," by Clarence Hawkes; "The House in the Water," by Charles +G. D. Roberts; and "Forest Neighbors," by William Davenport Hulbert. +There are also admirable papers by Ernest Thompson Seton in his +"Life-Histories of Northern Animals," by W. T. Hornaday in his +"American Natural History," and by Baillie-Grohman in "Camps in the +Rockies." + + + + +Index + + + Accidents, 144. + + Age, 14, 193. + + Air, blanket over pond, 202, 203. + + American Fur Company, 49. + + Arkansas River, 218. + + Astor, John Jacob, 49. + + Attitudes, 6. + + Audubon, John James, 53. + + Autumn activities, beginning of, 200. + + + Bad Lands, 65. + + Basins, food, 108. _See also_ Wells. + + Beaver, a tame, 22-25. + + Beaver, aged, of the Spruce Tree Colony, 83, 84, 95, 96; + of Lily Lake, 102-105; migrating to the Moraine Colony, 167, 168. + + Bedding, 122, 123. + + Bierstadt Moraine, 140. + + Bobcat, 35. + + Burrows, 110, 111; a substitute for houses, 127, 128. + + + Canada, emblem of, 43. + + Canals, 77, 78, 88, 141, 145-149, 187; at Lily Lake, 103, 104; + importance, 105; use of excavated material, 105, 106; forms of, + 106, 107; system at Three Forks, Mont., 107-111; dug in winter, + 206 + + Castoreum, 43, 44. + + Chasm Lake, 142. + + Civilization, the beaver's influence on, 47-49. + + Color, 8. + + Colorado River, 25, 50. + + Coöperation, 171. + + Coyotes, 23, 102, 161-163, 166. + + Cry, 27. + + Cutting trees, methods of, 10-12, 31, 32; intelligence shown in, 57, + 91; operations observed, 86, 90-96; accidents in, 144. + + + Dams, materials, 65-67; construction, 66, 67; uses, 69; growth, 69, + 70; new and old, 70, 71; discharge from, 71, 72; not all beaver + build, 72; thoroughfares, 73; effect on topography, 73, 74; shape, + 75-77; an interesting dam, 76-78; waterproofing, 78; dimensions of + a long dam, 78, 79; dimensions of other dams, 86; across + canals, 108-110; the dead-wood dam, 143-150; across a drainage + ditch, 180, 181; across an irrigation ditch, 189, 190; a + homesteader's dam completed by beaver, 192, 193; effect on + stream-flow, 213-217. + + Day, working by, 33, 94, 156. + + Death, 14. + + Ditch, struggle over a, 179-182. + + Ditches. _See_ Canals. + + Diver, the young beaver, 22-25. + + Domestication, 25. + + Dunraven, Lord, 179. + + + Ears, 7. + + Enemies, 14; times of danger from, 198. + + Engineering, 139-150. + + Erosion, checked by beaver, 214, 217, 218. + + Errors, 67, 68. + + Estes Park, 179. + + Europe, the beaver in, 40, 41. + + Exploration, 168, 169. + + Eyesight, 8. + + + Fabulous accounts, 53. + + Feet, uses of, 5, 6; form of, 8. + + Feigning injury, 25, 26. + + Felling trees. _See_ Cutting trees. + + Fence posts, 30. + + Fighting, 19, 20, 34, 35. + + Fire, 158-163. + + Fish, water-holes for, 214. + + Flat-top, a beaver pioneer, 175, 176, 183-193. + + Floods, 206, 207; damage prevented by beaver, 214, 216. + + Food, 10, 84, 205. + + Food-piles, 12, 13, 88, 89, 97, 150, 169. + + Fossil beaver, 40. + + Fox, 199. + + Fruit trees, 30. + + + Geographical distribution, 40-42, 49, 50. + + Gold, 218. + + Grand Cañon, 25, 50. + + + Hands, uses of, 5; form of, 8. + + Harvest, a year's, 97; a large, 169. + + Harvest-gathering, 83-98, 148-150, 157, 158. + + Hearing, 8. + + Hearne, Samuel, quoted, 53. + + History, the beaver in, 41-44. + + Homesteader, a friendly, 190-193. + + Houses, building, 3; occupants, 21; dimensions, 86, 119, 120, 130, + 131; mud plastering, 97, 123-125; construction, 119-123, 130, + 131; entrances, 119, 120; situation, 120, 125-127; burrows a + substitute for, 127, 128; a typical house, 130, 131; ventilation, + 132; enlargement, 169-171; security, 197, 198; shaped to meet + floods, 207. + + Hudson's Bay Company, the, 48. + + + Ice, a trouble of beaver existence, 126, 127; a catastrophe caused + by, 184-186; on the pond, 200, 202-206; casualties caused by, 207. + + Indians, their legends about the beaver, 39. + + Individuality, 35, 67. + + Industry, 36. + + Intelligence, 46, 57-60. + + Irrigation-ditches, 31. + + Island Colony, harvesting methods of, 92, 93. + + + Jefferson River, 11, 78, 107, 108. + + + Kingsford, William, his History of Canada, 48. + + + Land, beaver seen on, 191, 192. + + Leadership, 20. + + Legends, 39. + + Lewis and Clark, 42. + + Life, the beaver's, 14-16. + + Lily Lake, beaver at, 101-105; beaver house at, 119; the pioneer + beaver of, 175-193; description of, 178. + + Lily Mountain, 182. + + Lion, mountain, 160-162, 166. + + Local attachment, 141, 142. + + Long, Stephen Harriman, his Journal, 33. + + Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, his _Hiawatha_ quoted, 60, 61. + + Long's Peak, 140, 153. + + Love ditty, 27. + + + Majors, Alexander, his _Seventy Years on the Frontier_, 59, 60. + + Martin, Horace T., 49. + + Mating, 27. + + Medicine Bow Mountains, 197. + + Migration, 20, 21, 132, 133, 141, 161-163, 167-169, 175-177, 182, + 183. + + Mischief, 30, 31. + + Moraine Colony, engineering of, 139, 142-150; discovery and + observation of, 153-158; homes destroyed by fire, 158, 159; + migrating, 161-163; new site, 163, 164; old site resettled, 165; + later fortunes, 166-171. + + Morgan, Lewis H., his _American Beaver and his Works_, 54, 55, 58. + + + Night, working at, 33. + + Northwestern Fur Company, 49. + + + Old, the, 34. + + Outcasts, 34. + + Ouzel, water, 199. + + + Parasites, 14. + + Physical make-up, 5-9, 68. + + Pipestone Creek, 11. + + Place-names taken from the beaver, 42, 43. + + Play, 29, 156, 157. + + Ponds, early abundance, 42; size, 65, 86; uses, 68, 69; chains or + clusters of, 74; depth, 107; canals in bottom, 107; spring-filled, + 113, 114; lowering the level under ice, 202, 203; draining, 208, + 209; effect on stream-flow, 213-217; leaky reservoirs, 216. + + Population, changes in, 46, 47. + + Protection, 50, 217, 220, 221. + + + Reason, evidences of, 57, 58. + + Romanes, George J., on the beaver, 58, 59. + + + Sanitation, 208. + + Sawtooth Mountains, 66. + + Sediment, a problem of beaver life, 125, 126. + + Sheep, mountain, 192. + + Size, 7. + + Skins, 43, 44, 48, 49. + + Sleep, 122. + + Slides, 87, 112, 199. + + Smell, sense of, 7. + + Snake River, 25. + + Soil, the beaver's conservation of, 214, 217-220. + + Sounds and silence, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 133, 134. + + Springs, use of, 204. + + Spruce Tree Colony, harvest time with, 83-98; tunnels in, 113-115. + + Stream-flow, effect of beaver on, 72-74, 213-217. + + Strength, 9. + + Subways. _See_ Tunnels. + + Swimming, method of, 6. + + + Tail, uses of, 5, 6, 11; form and covering, 8; signalling with, 24, + 31, 96; fabulous accounts of the uses of, 53. + + Teeth, 7-9. + + Three Forks, Montana, 42, 79; canal system at, 107-111. + + Trails, 111, 112. + + Transportation of dam and food material, 86-90, 92, 93; canals used + in, 106-115; trails and slides used in, 111, 112, 115; tunnels + used in, 112-115. + + Trappers, 164, 189-191. + + Traps, 35, 189. + + Trees, cutting. _See_ Cutting trees. + + Trimming trees, 12, 96. + + Trout, 205, 206. + + Tunnels, 85, 112-115, 198, 203, 206. + + + Water. _See_ Stream-flow. + + Water-ouzel, 199. + + Water-supply, 85, 86. + + Weather-wisdom, 44-47. + + Weight, 7. + + Wells, food, 103, 104. _See also_ Basins. + + Whistle, 26, 37. + + Wildcat, 35. + + Willow Creek, 176. + + Wind River, 102, 175, 182, 188. + + Winter, beaver life in, 197-209. + + Wolves, gray, 191, 197. + + Wood, dead, 143, 144. + + Work, accomplished by beaver, 3-5. + + + Young, birth and care of, 27, 28; growth and play of, 28. + + +The Riverside Press +CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS +U . S . A + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42282 *** |