208 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



inches in diameter and perhaps twenty feet 

 long. Preparatory to being dragged to the 

 pond they had been gnawed into sections of 

 from three to six feet. 



The beavers had not nearly finished their 

 harvesting when a heavy fall of snow came and 

 they were compelled to abandon their carefully 

 made dragway and the aspen grove where they 

 had been cutting. The nearest aspens now 

 available were only sixty feet from the edge 

 of the pond. But a thick belt of pines and a 

 confusion of large, fallen, fire-killed spruce logs 

 lay between the pond and this aspen grove. 



Deep snow, thick pines, and fallen logs did 

 not stop their harvest-gathering efforts. Tracks 

 in the snow showed that they went to work 

 beyond the belt of pines. During one night 

 five beavers had wallowed out to the aspens, 

 felled several and dragged them into the pond. 

 But wolves appeared to realize the distress of 

 the beavers. They lurked about for opportuni- 

 ties to seize these hunger-driven animals. While 

 harvesting the aspen grove wolves had pounced 

 upon one of the beavers at work and another 

 on his way to the pond had been pursued, over- 

 taken, and killed in the deep snow. 



During three days of good weather which 

 followed, ever watchful for wolves, the beavers 

 cut few aspens. Then came another snowstorm. 



