REBUILDING A BEAVER COLONY 133 



end full of water. A spring concealed among 

 the willows forty feet above had been used. From 

 the spring a small ditch had been dug by the 

 beavers and through this the water was pouring 

 rapidly into the now overflowing canal. 



Early one evening, two days later, I peeped 

 through the willows near the south end of the 

 canal and saw an aspen pole with two or three 

 twigs and several leaves fluttering from it. It 

 was moving down the canal toward the house. 

 The old beaver was propelling this. Both 

 forepaws were against the end of the pole and 

 he pushed it speeding toward the house at the 

 lower end of the canal. He left this pole in 

 the water and returned for another, then 

 another. 



When he arrived with the third there were 

 two beavers dragging the other poles over the 

 short wet space between the end of the canal and 

 the edge of the pond. 



These aspens were being canned in the water 

 stored in the pond from which during the 

 winter they would be dragged in short sections 

 up into the house and their bark eaten. 



A green aspen commonly water-logs and sinks 

 inside of thirty-six hours. The beavers were 

 simply piling one pole on another, evidently 

 realizing that the sinking would follow. 



The following afternoon I saw the old beaver 



