158 Trails to Woods and Waters 



suddenly and reappeared in such unexpected 

 places that we were not sure of their num- 

 ber. 



Finally all swam away upstream where 

 they were gone about twenty minutes. But 

 they soon returned pushing alder and willow 

 bushes before them in the water. These they 

 stuck into the foundation of the dam, filling 

 the gap with a row of stakes or pickets. So 

 far they had set to work just as a farmer 

 would mend a brush fence. Then they went 

 away upstream again and reappeared in about 

 the same time that they had before. This 

 time they brought more brush, which they 

 wove between the stakes, laterally. This was 

 evidently the backbone, for they soon brought 

 sods, which they floated in the water just as 

 they had the sticks, and laid them in front of 

 the brush fence that they had already built. 

 The current carried the sods into all the 

 crevasses and the flow of water was lessened 

 but it was not until they had carried sods and 

 mud for an hour that the break was entirely 

 filled. In a day or two when the mud and sod 



