122 THE BEAVER 
extraordinary. Mills gives the size of one in the Moraine 
colony as three feet deep and 124 feet in circumference. 
To make this 732 aspen saplings were gathered, also several 
hundred willows. Another harvest pile mentioned by him 
was four feet high and ninety feet in circumference. One 
foodpile which I saw in Gunnison County, Colorado, con- 
sisted entirely of willows, the large ends of which were stuck 
into or against the bank of the pond. ‘The stuff was from 
three to seven or eight feet long, placed in water four feet or 
more deep, from the bottom up to the surface, and extending 
along the shore of the pond for over a hundred feet. Another 
brush heap which I saw not far away must have contained 
over eight hundred cubic feet of willow boughs, which appar- 
ently were never used, for when I saw them the pond had 
been drained, though I am sure no beavers had lived in it 
for a year or two, and the bark was rotting from the brush. 
Presumably the beavers were trapped before they could use 
their store. If the stored food is not used during the winter 
it is abandoned, never used at all, the animals evidently 
preferring fresh provender in the spring (Figs. 68 and 69). 
In moving logs to the pond or canal the beaver adopts 
such methods as are best suited to the circumstances. It 
may push or roll them over the ground until the water is 
reached, or if their size permits, take hold with the teeth 
and drag them alongside itself, or drag them along while 
walking on its hind legs, supporting the stick with the hands. 
Sometimes the stick is thrown over the shoulder while held 
by the teeth. I have seen marks on the ground as if a stick 
three or four inches thick had been dragged down a hill from 
one pond to another. I think branches and brush are always 
carried by being dragged alongside, certainly the marks 
which I have seen in trails would indicate that such is the 
case. At Camp Roosevelt we used to walk down the Cooke 
City road in the evening to watch the beavers at a colony 
