00-KOO-HOO PLAYS THE GAME 123 



and the bank; so they went over to investigate. Evidently 

 the dogs had spied a beaver, for now, though none was in sight, 

 the canines were rushing back and forth in great excitement 

 over a fairly deep submarine runway or clear passageway, 

 through the shallow, rush-matted water under the ice. 



Chopping a hole through the ice with his axe, Oo-koo-hoo 

 drove down a couple of crossed poles to block the passageway, 

 and Amik, finding other runways, did likewise at other places. 

 Several of the passageways led to the bank, where, Oo-koo-hoo 

 said, they had what is called "bank lodges" — natural cavities 

 in the river bank to which the beavers had counted on resorting 

 in case their house was raided. In other places, where the snow 

 obscured the view, the Indians knocked on the ice with the 

 backs of their axes, to find and follow the hoUow-sounding ice 

 that told of runways below, that other stakes might be driven 

 down. The rapping sound, however, instead of driving the 

 beavers out of their lodge, had a tendency to make them remain 

 at home, for as Oo-koo-hoo explained, cutting ice and working 

 around their homes does not always frighten the beavers. 



Securing two stouter poles, the hunters now chopped the 

 butts into wedge-shaped chisels, with which they proposed 

 to break open the beavers' lodge. Work was begun about a 

 foot above the level of the snow on the south side, as they 

 explained that the lodge would not only be thinner on that side, 

 but that the sun would make it slightly softer, too — and before 

 much headway was made the dogs, all alert, discovered that 

 several of the beavers had rushed out of their house, but finding 

 the passageways blocked had returned home. 



Now, strange to say, as soon as the side of the house was 

 broken open and daylight let in, the beavers, becoming curious 

 over the inflowing light that dazzled their eyes, actually came 

 toward the newly made hole to investigate. Then Oo-koo-hoo, 

 with the aid of a crooked stick, suddenly jerked one of the un- 

 suspecting animals out of the hole and Amik knocked it on the 



