140 THE BEAVER 
camera which I had set on a tripod on the dam near the 
trail where the animals crossed, hoping to obtain a picture. 
One came near this, evidently intending to land, but on see- 
ing the camera dived with a great splash, and it and another 
afterward swam about, occasionally diving with slaps as if 
to manifest their displeasure. 
Dugmore says that his photographs show that when a 
beaver slaps the water with its tail in diving the head and 
shoulders are held high out of the water as the tail is raised. 
This slapping with the tail is a well known habit of the 
beaver, and one which is made a good deal of by some 
writers. The slapping appears to be a danger signal, but 
even when alarmed the beaver does not always give it. I 
once came suddenly upon a beaver as it was swimming in a 
pond in midday, and though it must have been frightened 
at my unexpected appearance it dove quietly and without 
the least noise. One day at the Crescent Hill colony in the 
Yellowstone Park we were eating our lunch on the opposite 
side of the pond from the lodge. A beaver kept coming 
out, swimming around and then disappearing until I could 
stand it no longer, and picking up my graflex, I crossed on 
the dam and stationed myself at a favorable point. Pres- 
ently I was able to make an exposure. The beaver dived 
at the sound of the shutter without any disturbance. En- 
couraged by my success I went somewhat nearer the lodge, 
and presently my subject reappeared. Evidently I was too 
close this time, for as the shutter went the beaver dived with 
a tremendous splash which threw water all over me, though 
I was some twenty feet or more away. At another colony 
in the Yellowstone I was watching a beaver feeding one 
afternoon, when it suddenly disappeared, and a few minutes 
afterward I discovered it quite close to me, floating motion- 
less in the water, with only the head out. Then it returned 
to its feeding place. This was repeated two or three times, 
