MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 355 



mains of several old ones near the post of Fort Verde. But notwith- 

 standing the plentitude of l^eavers not one had before been seen, 

 although the streams had been forded at night and in the evening 

 many times. This one was seen on a cloudy day, after a shower, and 

 was shot from an ambush as it swam slowly down the river channel, 

 with only its head visible a})ove the surface of the water most of the 

 time, although it sometimes floated higher and drifted like a board. 

 It was so large and heavy that it was with difficulty removed to a 

 small tree and hung up in the shade. 



August 11, 1884, ^ort Verde, Arizona. — Visited a spot two miles 

 above the post where beavers had been hard at work cutting cotton- 

 wood trees and lopping off the branches close to the trunk. Well- 

 worn paths had been made by them when carrying the branches to 

 the river. I was walking silently and cautiously in the shade of the 

 cotton woods at a place where the bluff bank was about 10 feet 

 high, when I noticed a ripple proceeding from the nearer shore 

 beneath some jutting roots and brushwood, and cre])t stealthily to 

 the shore and saw^ that thei'e was a great commotion in the water. 

 In fact, the whole stream was quaking from the ra{)id movements 

 of some animal beneath the surface. Soon the head of a large 

 beaver emerged from the shallow water on the o])posite side, and in 

 a moment another and another. It proved to be a beaver mother 

 giving instructions to her kittens in the art of swimming. I quickly 

 pulled both triggers of my shotgun. Then there was a splash, and 

 for a moment the water and sand fairly boiled, after which there 

 was only the spasmodic kicking and flapping of a wounded beaver, 

 which was secured, not however without difficulty, from a dangerous 

 quicksand among some stranded snags of trees about which the 

 beavers had been trying to build a dam. On this account the beaver 

 colony was not subsequently molested by me, as I was desirous of 

 observing their method of work on the attempted dam. 



August 21, 1884, ^ort Verde, Arizona. — This evening I repaired to 

 the spot where I shot the beaver and watched for these animals 

 until it was pitch dark. I saw a large beaver at work on the dam, 

 but it fla]:>[)ed its tail on the water and dived upstream, and I did 

 not see it again. As the darkness increased I could hear them 

 s}>lasliing in the water and flapping their tails on the ground with a 

 sliar}) thud from time to time, but I could see nothing, as the night 

 was dark save when a distant flash of lightning illumined the water 

 for a second. 



August 22, I884, Fort Verde, Arizona. — The beavers are putting 

 forth strenuous efforts to cut down all the timber near their dam. 

 I am interested to see whether the}^ will actually succeed in cutting 

 off some large trees from which they have stripped the bark and on 



