ATTEMPT TO "OUT-SMART" A BEAVER. lol 



bark of cottonwood-trees, swamp maples, alders, and willows. 

 I Lave seen large beds of osiers cut down by them, to be 

 stowed away for winter provisions, as cleanly as if done by 

 a sharp briar scythe. Protected from frost and kept moist 

 by being in a damp place, these twigs remain fresh and 

 tender until spring. 



The beaver is, in his way, a frolicsome and playful 

 creature. I have often, from a secure ambush where they 

 could neither see nor smell me, watched them by the light 

 of the moon for hours as they chased one another, climbing 

 out on the bank and taking headers off it, splashing the 

 water with their broad flat tails, in fact, having a regular 

 aquatic romp. 



I will here give a little anecdote dpropos of beavers, for 

 the truth of which I can vouch. 



A party of miners, working placer-diggings, brought a 

 ditch on their ground for sluicing purposes. As the placer 

 lay pretty high up, they had to take the water out of the 

 river some five miles above their works, and give it as 

 little fall as would bring down a good ground-sluice head. 

 The ditch took the water from a pool pre-emptied by 

 beavers, and lowered it a few inches. This they evidently 

 highly disapproved of, for the second night after the water 

 was let into the ditch they had most effectually dammed it. 

 And not content with one demonstration of their oppo- 

 sition, they continued to re-dam the head of the ditch as 

 fast as it was re-opened. As it took a man above an hour 

 to walk up to the head of the ditch, and two hours and a 

 half for the water to come down it, a guard had to be placed 

 there, to keep the beavers from shutting off the water, and 



