CHAPTER XVII 



NATURE GUIDING AT HOME 



E,Y LAKE, two miles from my cabin, was 

 a large beaver pond which the Arapahoe 

 Indians called Beaver Lodge Lake. There 

 were a number of beaver houses in it. A year 

 before I came into the scene the lake temporarily 

 went dry and the beavers migrated down into 

 Wind River Canon, to the west of the lake. A 

 high, rocky mountain rose to the north of this 

 lake, a grassy border was on the south, and near 

 the east shore was a forest. 



The lake refilled and continued to be a wild- 

 life water hole where birds and animals fre- 

 quently came, and sometimes gathered in num- 

 bers. Often I visited the lake, and among the 

 callers whom I occasionally saw were bears, 

 wildcats, mountain lions, mountain sheep, snow- 

 shoe rabbits, eagles, and many other kinds of 

 birds. 



It was a never-ending surprise to me that so 

 many live things came to one place, and that so 

 many different ways of birds and animals could 

 be learned in one little spot. 



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