THE LURE OF THE BEAVER 



607 



of the house, and not scenting or hearing anything 

 suspicions, swam away to the feeding groimds. 



At last I had found a place and method at which 

 the wariness of the animals would not baffle me, and 

 new facts came rapidly during the week I watched 

 from the platform spiked to the three poplars. 



On this level point of land there was no downward 

 air current and the beavers could not scent me. To 

 noise they were not so sensitive as I had expected. 

 The rather loud click of a camera which several times 

 caused a muskrat to plunge with alarm, made no ini 

 pression on the beavers, and to their eyes the large 

 platform, six feet by three, and myself sitting on il 

 without any screen whatever, conveyed no import of 

 danger. 



As far as I could tell they did not see me at all. 

 Once, hov\-ever, I thought a beaver some hundred 

 yards away caught sight of me against the sky line as 

 I moved to shift my position. 



Every evening between six and half past, the young 

 beavers of the season began a sort of child-like whin- 

 ing. Within half an hour after that, one or two full 

 grown animals left the house under water and arose at 

 a distance of about two hundred feet to scout along 

 the shore as already described. In most cases I failed 

 to see them leave the house. Once I saw a large piece 

 of poplar, perhaps three feet long and four inches in 

 diameter, taken into the house under water. I could 

 not see the dark beaver, but only the whitish piece of 

 poplar, and the movement under water produced no 

 ripples on the surface. About ten or fifteen minutes 

 after the old beavers had left, the half grown yearlings 

 generally left the house and all swam towards the 

 feeding grounds, a quarter of a mile to the west. I 

 think there were four of these yearlings. Once I saw 



WOMEN WALKING ON" BE.WER DAM 



Not many women have walked over a beaver dam and those who have 

 see no particular reason why they should do it a second time. These 

 are members of the Minnesota Forestry School at Itasca Lake, Minnesota. 



THIS DAM IS FIVE FEET HIGH 



So firmly constructed is this dam that despite frequent rise of the stream 

 it still remains firm and strong, its top five feet above the average water 

 mark. It is in Southern Wisconsin. 



them leave so close together that their bodies touched 

 one another. 



I concluded that the beavers just mentioned were 

 yearlings because they were not full grown, and the 

 house was also inhabited by three or four animals only 

 about the size of muskrats. These little fellows seldom 

 showed themselves and never followed the parents to 

 the feeding grounds so I concluded that they did the 

 whining I regularly heard, because I heard it after 

 parents and yearlings had left the house. This house 

 I now knew for certain was inhabited by about ten 

 beavers belonging to three generations. The two 

 narents, easily distinguished by their large size, always 

 left the house first and scouted along the shore for 

 indications of danger. If their suspicion was aroused, 

 they gave the danger signal and I soon learned that 

 after that I should see very few or no beavers that 

 evening. If they suspected no danger they either 

 swam away to feed or returned leisurely to the house 

 and left again later. Near the house, they never went 

 on land, although from my platform I could see 

 seventeen wharves or landing places. But for some 

 reason the beavers were feeding at this time exclu- 

 sively a quarter of a mile away. 



The house under the high bank also harbored 

 parents, yearlings, and young of the season, but I 

 secured no good evidence as to their number : how- 

 e\'er. to judge from the size of the house and other 

 signs, the number was less, perhaps only six or seven. 



The yearlings did not heed the danger signals of 

 the parents as implicitly as they would do with the 

 writers of nature fiction. Twice one of the parents 

 became alarmed at my raft moored on the other side 

 of the point and gave the plunge-and-slap signal, but 

 the yearlings near the house paid no attention to it 

 although the alarmed parent was not more than two 



