150 THE BEAVER 
tions between the beaver and the otter. The latter is fully 
as much at home in the water as the former, and surely 
would be a most formidable enemy. In ‘Fins, Feathers 
and Fur,’ March, 1922, James Harris, a Minnesota game 
warden, reported that in February, on the Superior Game 
Refuge, he saw where an otter had made a hole through a 
beaver dam and drained the water off. Hesaid: “Trappers 
claim that otters do this so as to make an air space to 
swim around in under the ice and look for food; they will 
also attack beaver if they find one alone. A local trapper 
informed me that he had seen a beaver dam in the game 
refuge where an otter had drained it and had a fight with 
the beaver, they had driven him out and wounded him as 
there were blood stains on the trail where he came out.” 
Audubon says that the otter is the worst enemy the beaver 
has. 
Mills, in ‘‘Watched by Wild Animals,” chapter V, ‘“‘The 
Otter Plays on,” tells of a battle between an otter and 
beavers in the latter’spond. Most of the fighting was under 
water. Several beavers were in the fray against the single 
otter, which finally broke away and made its escape, and 
seemingly was badly bitten. 
A beaver is essentially a peace-loving animal, and such 
as I have seen caught in traps made absolutely no fight. 
One which was caught by a hind toe only, permitted me to 
pull it by the tail out from under the bank where it was 
hiding, attach a long wire to a hind foot, and remove the 
trap. I then dragged it along to an open space on the shore 
where I could photograph it (Fig. 77). The animal made not 
the slightest resistance, and appeared quite resigned toitsfate. 
When once on the shore and securely tethered, it began to 
comb and dry its hair with its claws. And all the time I 
had been in fear of a nip from those teeth which easily could 
have made serious cuts if their owner had been inclined to 
