OF A RANCHMAN 87 



a tangle of ravines and clefts, with very 

 steep sides rising into sharp hills. The sides 

 of the ravines were quite densely over- 

 grown with underbrush and young trees, 

 and through one or two of them ran, or 

 rather trickled, srnall streams, but an inch 

 or two in depth, and often less. Directly 

 across one of these ravines, at its narrow- 

 est and steepest part, the beaver had built 

 an immense, massive dam, completely stop- 

 ping the course of a little brooklet. The 

 dam was certainly eight feet high, and strong 

 enough and broad enough to cross on horse- 

 back ; and it had turned back the stream until 

 a large pond, almost a little lake, had been 

 formed by it. This was miles from any other 

 body of water, but, judging from the traces 

 of their work, it had once held a large colony 

 of beavers ; when I saw it they had all been 

 trapped out, and the pond had been deserted 

 for a year and over. Though clumsy on dry 

 ground, and fearing much to be caught upon 

 it. yet beaver can make, if necessary, quite 



