THE DAM 49 
On another stream in the same region two connecting 
ponds were drained some time between July 23 and 28. 
I have thought possibly the first mentioned pond had been 
drained to prevent the water in it from becoming stagnant 
before reaching the ponds below. Being of good size the 
current through it was slow and the water might need 
aérating. This theory, however, hardly seems applicable to 
the last mentioned ponds, where the conditions were quite 
different. 
Beavers are frequently very bold when not molested, 
and will build their dams surprisingly close to inhabited 
houses, and even within the limits of a town. Several years 
ago a small dam was constructed in Ruxton Creek, in the 
town of Manitou, a thriving summer resort at the foot of 
Pikes Peak, with a permanent winter population of several 
thousand. One could look from the sidewalk down into the 
gulch where the stream was, and all along on the opposite 
side were houses. Even in the dull winter season people 
were constantly passing, yet the beavers had built this dam 
and had been cutting trees and bushes close by, even at the 
top of the bank close to the sidewalk (Fig. 21). 
The following autumn a colony established itself on Foun- 
tain Creek, a mile below Manitou, not far, however, from 
houses, and built a dam near a railroad track, and cut 
down forty or more trees. This work was washed out by 
high water the following summer, and the animals moved 
upstream a short distance and built a new dam four feet 
high, under the bridge by which the railroad crossed the 
creek, making a pond one hundred feet long. They had 
felled a number of cottonwood trees here. I think these 
beavers moved away the following year and never returned 
(Fig. 22). 
A somewhat remarkable instance is that of a couple of 
beavers which established themselves in an artificial lake at 
the summer resort of Green Mountain Falls, in the Ute 
