bers used in building their two houses. On the 

 completion of the houses, the home-builders re- 

 turned to the grove and procured winter supplies. 

 In most cases the small aspen were floated to the 

 pile between the houses with an adept skill, with- 

 out severing the trunk or cutting off a single 

 limb. 



The colonists had a few years of ideal beaver 

 life. One summer I came upon Flat-top and a 

 few other beaver by the brook that drains the 

 lake, and at a point about half a mile below its 

 outlet. It was along this brook that Flat-top's 

 intrepid ancestors had painfully climbed to estab- 

 lish the first settlement in the lake. Commonly 

 each summer several beaver descended the moun- 

 tain and spent a few weeks of vacation along 

 Wind River. Invariably they returned before the 

 end of August; and autumn harvest-gathering 

 usually began shortly after their return. 



Year after year the regularly equipped trappers 

 passed the lake without stopping. The houses 

 did not show distinctly from the trail, and the 

 trappers did not know that there were beaver in 

 this place. But this peaceful, populous lake was 

 188 



