38 BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 
The firsttwo years on a beaver farm is a tedious exist- 
ence. The farmer divides his time between caring for 
his colony and hunting. 
Upon the latter he depends principally, for his food. 
But little money is spent in the construction of dwell- 
ings. First an excavation of five or six feet deep is made 
in the ground, and around this stakes are driven close- 
ly together. When fixed in the ground they stand 
about six feet high. 
The tall, strong posts are set in the center at each 
end, and running from one to the other is a ridge pole. 
Long poles are slanted from this pole over the ends 
of the surrounding stakes, projecting several inches. 
On the roof thus made, square cakes of sod are laid, 
dirt is then thrown over it, and the whole is covered with 
sod. Around the outside dirt is heaped until the ends 
of the roof poles are covered. 
The whole affair, from a distance, looks like a tent 
shaped upheaval of the ground. The entrance is a square 
opening in one end. Although there is nothing attrac- 
tive about the architecture of this abode, it is a very 
comfortable dwelling and protects the occupant against 
the winter blizzards perfectly. Bear skins and deer pelts 
scattered over the floor and pieces of rough furniture 
covered in the same way add to the comfort of the dom- 
icile. The best of feeling usually exist between the res- 
idents of this out of-the-way corner. The farmers are, 
for the most part, men whose lives have been passed on 
the western hunting grounds. They are hardy, slow 
going men, who take kindly to the hermit life that they 
live. But, when the time comes for selling the product 
of their farms, they go down to Washburn and engage 
