46 BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS 
I then took up his trail which led to the river where 
he was found disporting himself in mid-channel of the 
shore shute, but he refused to recognize or heed my 
call and cut up all kind of antics to show his contempt 
for my efforts athis capture. I then returned to his late 
quarters in the celler to inspect his method of escape 
and after thorough investigation concluded to class Nibs 
with the Jack Shepperd’s and Claude Duval’s of medi- 
eval England in his efforts at jail breaking. 
As I have before mentioned, the celler had been dug 
through a gravel deposit with hard subsoil. The bea- 
ver had only one good paw to dig with having lost the 
use of the other from the twisting he gave it while being 
caught in the steel trap at the time of hiscapture. Thus 
hand-i-capped in the digging business, to effect his es- 
cape he had to do some thinking—some figuring—as it 
were. To make digging easy it was necessary to soften 
up the extremely hard ground and to do this he must 
make use of the water in the tub. Carrying the water 
in his mouth as he undoubtedly had done, he saturated 
the earth in the corner where from its darkness, would 
most likely escape observation during the progress of his 
plans of proceedure inthe manner of digging out. The 
dirt that he dug was partly thrown in the tub to make 
mud as a blind, but the greater part was left in a heep 
near the excavation, but so deftly covered with hay ta- 
ken from his bed that his work would easily escape ob- 
servation, to one not onto his movements. He was 
two nights before he effected his way out but so sure 
was he of liberty and the time to effect that he felt safe 
for spare time to make a last visit to the tub before his 
departure and so far give vent in his displeasure to his 
