of 



idle away two or three months of each summer 

 in exploring the neighboring brooks and streams. 

 But they never fail to return in time for autumn 

 activities. It thus becomes plain how, when an 

 old colony needs to move, some one in it knows 

 where to go and the route to follow. 



I had enjoyed the ways of "our first engi- 

 neers" for several years before it dawned upon 

 me that their works might be useful to man and 

 that the beaver might justly be called the first 

 conservationist. One dry winter the stream 

 through the Moraine Colony ran low and froze 

 to the bottom, and the only trout in it that 

 survived were those in the deep holes of these 

 beaver ponds. 'Another demonstration of their 

 usefulness came one gray day. The easy rain of 

 two days ended in a heavy downpour and a 

 deluge of water on the mountainside above. 

 This mountain-slope was still barren from the 

 forest fire. It had but little to absorb or delay 

 the excess of water, which was speedily shed 

 into the stream below. Flooding down the 

 stream's channel came a roaring avalanche or 

 waterslide, with a rubbish-filled front that was 



40 



