206 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



came into the region. He lingered and broke 

 and rebroke the dam three or four times. When 

 he finally left, autumn was half gone and prepa- 

 rations for winter in the new colony were only 

 well begun. The dam was still low and uncom- 

 pleted. As yet they had not begun cutting and 

 storing aspen for their winter's food supply. 



These beavers had been industrious. They 

 had planned well. But it was a case of one 

 misfortune quickly following another. A se- 

 vere cold wave still further and seriously handi- 

 capped the harvest gathering of the colonists. 

 The quieter reaches of the stream were frozen 

 over and a heavy plating of ice was left on the 

 pond. They would have difficulty transporting 

 their food-cut aspens under such conditions. 



Winter supplies for this colony green aspen 

 or birch trees must be had. Ordinarily, bea- 

 vers cut the trees most easily obtained: first 

 those on the shore of the pond, then those up 

 stream, and finally those on near-by, down-hill 

 slopes. Rarely does a beaver go fifty feet from 

 the water. But if necessary he will go down 

 stream and float trees against the current, or 

 drag trees up steep slopes. This pond did not 

 have, as is common, a border of aspen trees. 



Late October I visited this new wilderness 

 home. In the lower end of the frozen pond was 

 a two-foot hole in the ice. This had been 



