TRAVELLING WITH A BEAVER 75 



talked to him. He rarely moved during the 

 night except when I rose from the bed to notice 

 the fire or to have a look at our horse. Wolves 

 howled, coyotes came close and yelped, but 

 Diver appeared to think that everything was all 

 right and himself safe so long as I lay still. 



A shrill cry from Diver one afternoon told me 

 that he was in trouble. We had camped early 

 this day and he had gone far upstream. On the 

 way back he appeared to have left the water 

 and to have started across a neck of land around 

 which the stream flowed. Here he was at- 

 tacked by a lynx but escaped into the water. 

 The lynx evidently had made numerous at- 

 tempts to grab him. Wet tracks on logs showed 

 that the lynx had manoeuvred from side to side, 

 occasionally stepping into the water. Diver 

 had silently taken care of himself until tiring or 

 becoming frightened and had then called for help. 

 He kept close to my heels on the way back to 

 camp. 



Every day we saw beaver houses, ponds, and 

 numerous places where beavers had cut down 

 aspen and cottonwood trees. The trees cut 

 commonly were from three to eight inches in 

 diameter. But there were numbers of stumps 

 from twelve to sixteen inches across. Most of 

 these trees had been cut for food. Numerous 

 cut pieces with the bark eaten off lay on the top 



