168 THE BEAVER 
fallen across the creek. ‘Tooth-marks on the stumps showed 
the work was done by young beavers. ‘The old ones made 
them stop because the tree would not fall over the water. 
The trappers showed Bradbury. 
Father DeSmet in 1843 said: When they are about con- 
structing a dam, they examine all the trees on the bank, 
and choose one that is most bent over the water on the side 
where they want to erect their fort. If they find no tree of 
this kind they repair to another place, or patiently wait 
until a violent wind gives the requisite inclination to some 
of the trees. 
If one wishes he can find opportunities for nature faking 
stories as he studies the beaver’s work and chooses to twist 
what he sees to suit his own purposes. 
I happened on a chance of the sort in the Yellowstone 
one day. Two aspen trunks growing from one root had 
been cut partly through from opposite sides and had fallen 
in opposite directions. Not far from them another aspen 
had also been partly cut and had fallen. An unusually 
large aspen had fallen so that it lay over the single stump 
and between the other two. This large aspen had been so 
much decayed that only a shell of green wood was left on 
one side, and when this was cut the tree had fallen, and had 
happened to drop as I have described. An examination of 
the various logs showed that the large tree had not fallen 
until after the others, for these showed no marks which the 
large tree would undoubtedly have made if it had fallen 
first and brought the others down with it. 
Now if I were a real good nature faker I might tell about 
it in this fashion: 
Old Paddy Beaver was taking a look about his premises 
one day and came across these two aspens growing from one 
root, noticed the other, also the big one. He saw how little 
work it would take to fell the latter and that it leaned in 
