164 Trails to Woods and Waters 



length, floating downstream to the lake. The 

 beaver has the same provident instinct as the 

 bee, who prods the white clover and the 

 goldenrod, bringing home their sweets, and 

 storing it up against the time of dearth. Does 

 this not look as though there was a calendar in 

 the animal and insect world? 



What is more picturesque or pleasing in the 

 many happy surprises of the wilderness than 

 a beaver dam, holding in its strong arm a 

 beautiful woodland lake? 



It does not look like a thing that was made 

 by hands, or teeth or feet either, for that mat- 

 ter, but just as though it grew here, and was a 

 part of nature. The ends of the logs are so 

 ragged, and the whole structure is so over- 

 grown with lichens and moss, and perhaps 

 willows or alders that it seems part and parcel 

 of nature's handiwork. 



But as you fall to studying it and see how 

 well it was placed, how that great boulder was 

 made to brace the dam in the middle of the 

 stream, or a tree made to hold one end, or 

 how the natural features of the landscape 



