TRAVELLING WITH A BEAVER 73 



Occasionally we camped near a beaver pond, 

 and ofttimes other young beavers played with 

 Diver. Now and then he would swim across a 

 pond to visit another beaver. He seemed to be 

 welcome, and although the old ones at times 

 appeared to receive his visit indifferently no at- 

 tempt was ever made to drive him away. Strange 

 as it may seem, he never showed a desire to re- 

 main with his kind. Rarely did he linger with 

 them more than fifteen or twenty minutes and 

 he always came at once when I called. 



Early one afternoon we made camp by a 

 wide stream. Diver amused himself for a short 

 time in the water, then went out on the sand of 

 the opposite side of the stream. I sat on a log 

 a few feet from the water and watched him. 

 He dug up two or three young plants of the Ore- 

 gon grape and ate them, roots and all. While 

 he was searching for something more to eat a 

 coyote darted at him from behind a boulder. 

 With a cry like that of a frightened child, he 

 dodged the coyote, leaped into the water, and 

 dived out of sight. He came up on my side of 

 the stream, rushed to me, and made haste to 

 hide himself between the log on which I sat and 

 my coat tail which hung over it. 



Although there was no near-by beaver house 

 and no beavers had been seen, yet within a 

 minute three beavers appeared one from up- 



