walled upper course. He and his party settled, 

 or rather resettled, Lily Lake. 



Flat-top was the name I gave him because of 

 his straight back. In most beaver the shoulders 

 swell plumply above the back line after the out- 

 line of the grizzly bear. Along with this peculiar- 

 ity, which enabled me to be certain of his presence, 

 was another. This was his habit of gnawing trees 

 off close to the earth when he felled them. The 

 finding of an occasional low-cut stump assured 

 me of his presence during the periods I failed to 

 see him. 



The first beaver settlement in the lake appears 

 to have been made in the early seventies, long 

 before Flat-top was born, by a pair of beaver who 

 were full of the pioneer spirit. These settlers ap- 

 parently were the sole survivors of a large party 

 of emigrants who tried to climb the rugged 

 mountains to the lake, having been driven from 

 their homes by encroaching human settlers. Af- 

 ter a long, tedious journey, full of hardships and 

 dangers, they climbed into the lake that was to 

 them, for years, a real promised land. 



Driven from Willow Creek, they set off up- 

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