ijo WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



These settlers had come from about ten 

 miles down stream. During summer vaca- 

 tions beavers make long rambling journeys. It 

 may be that some of these beavers had visited 

 this old colony and knew of its opportunities 

 before coming to settle. 



From time to time during evenings I had 

 glimpses of several of the beaver settlers. From 

 their appearance and from their footprints they 

 were mostly young beavers. During the autumn 

 I several times dimly saw them playing in the 

 twilight. They splashed merrily about in the 

 pond, the entire colony taking part. 



With mud and willows the beavers repaired 

 the breaks in the but-little-damaged dam of the 

 old pond. Then they cut a ditch thirty or 

 forty feet long through a ridge to a little pond 

 to the north, and filled the old large pond. Its 

 waters extended to within twelve or fifteen feet 

 of the lower end of the canal. But as the canal 

 was nearly two feet higher than the surface of 

 this pond, water for the canal would have to 

 come from a higher source, and I was puzzled 

 as to where this might be. But beavers plan 

 their work two or three moves ahead, and they 

 probably knew what they were about. 



Commonly a house is built in the pond or on 

 the edge of it. But on a little space of raised 

 ground, within ten feet of the lower end of the 



