BEAVER LODGES AND BURROWS. 135 



sembles very closely that of a child a few days old. A 

 trapper illustrated to the author the completeness of 

 his deception by this cry, when he first commenced his 

 vocation in the Rocky Mountains, by relating the fol- 

 lowing incident: he was once going to his traps when 

 he heard a cry which he was sure was that of a child ; 

 and, fearing the presence of an Indian camp, he crept 

 in cautiously through the cotton-wood to the bank of 

 the stream, where he discovered two young beavers 

 upon a low bank of earth near the water, crying for 

 their mother, whom he afterward found in one of his 

 traps. On one occasion I was similarly deceived in 

 an Indian lodge at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, 

 where a young beaver was lapping milk from a saucer 

 while an Indian baby was pulling its fur. It was not 

 until after several repetitions that I noticed that it was 

 the cry of the beaver instead of the child. When the 

 first litter attain the age of two years, and in the third 

 summer after their birth, they are sent out from the 

 parent lodge to seek mates and establish families for 

 themselves, in which movement they are followed by 

 each successive litter upon the attainment of the same 

 age. Such at least is the uniform testimony of both 

 Indian and white trappers, in support of which they 

 assign the following reasons: first, that when they 

 capture an entire family in one lodge or burrow, which 

 is not unfrequent, they rarely, if ever, find more than 

 two old beavers, the remainder being under two years 

 old ; and that the usual number found in one lodge 

 ranges from four to eight, and rarely exceeds twelve: 

 secondly, that these numbers exhaust the accommoda- 

 tions of the lodge: thirdly, that old beavers are jealous 

 of, and hostile to their young after they attain ma- 



