Waterfowl 57 



also in the dry ones. Here they build dams clean 

 across, making ponds which always contain water, 

 even if the rest of the bed is almost dry ; and I have 

 often been surprised to find fresh traces of beaver in 

 a pond but a few feet across, a mile away from any 

 other body of water. On one occasion I was deer- 

 hunting in a rough, broken country, which was little 

 more than a tangle of ravines and clefts, with very 

 steep sides rising into sharp hills. The sides of the 

 ravines were quite densely overgrown with under- 

 brush and young trees, and through one or two of 

 them ran, or rather trickled, small streams, but an inch 

 or two in depth, and often less. Directly across one 

 of these ravines, at its narrowest and steepest part, the 

 beaver had built an immense, massive dam, complete- 

 ly stopping the course of a little brooklet. The dam 

 was certainly eight feet high, and strong enough and 

 broad enough to cross on horseback; and it had 

 turned back the stream until a large pond, almost a 

 little lake, had been formed by it. This was miles 

 from any other body of water, but, judging from 

 the traces of their work, it had once held a large 

 colony of beavers; when I saw it they had all been 

 trapped out, and the pond had been deserted for a 

 year and over. Though clumsy on dry ground, and 

 fearing much to be caught upon it, yet beaver can 

 make, if necessary, quite long overland journeys, 

 and that at a speed with which it will give a man 

 trouble to keep up. 



As there are few fish in the plains streams, otters 

 are naturally not at all common, though occasionally 



