232 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



set three traps in this manner on the Grass Lake 

 dam, using stakes instead of the pole-slide, with the 

 following results. Two days afterward he found, on 

 going to the traps, the three breaches fully repaired. 

 Two of the traps held each a beaver, and both 

 drowned ; but notwithstanding the calamity that 

 had befallen them, other beavers had finished their 

 work. The third trap had disappeared from sight. 

 He found the chain still held by the stake, which 

 showed, on running it up, that the trap was buried 

 in the breach made in the dam, under the materials 

 used in its repair. Upon drawing it out, he discovered 

 a duck in the trap, which had been caught and 

 drowned, and that both the duck and the trap had 

 been carried by the beavers into the breach and 

 there buried. 



Trapping at the lodge is another of the common 

 methods. Two parallel rows of stakes are driven in 

 from the mouth of each entrance for some distance 

 out into the pond, thus forming two narrow channels, 

 through one of which the beavers must pass to enter 

 the lodge. A trap is set in each passage-way, and 

 secured by a chain and stake in the usual manner. In 

 Fig. 11, supra, page 149, these rows of stakes are 

 shown. Traps set in this way are often found sprung 

 and empty, which has given rise to an opinion, more 

 or less prevalent among the trappers as well as the 

 Indians, that they are deliberately sprung by the 

 beavers. There is not only no foundation for this 

 conceit, but, on the contrary, the beaver is a remark- 

 ably dull animal with reference to precautions against 

 the trap. A sufficient explanation is probably found 

 in their manner of disposing their fore feet while 



