48 BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 
cottonwood sapling, and after applying their huge in- 
cisors vigorously, soon felled it to the ground. They 
then proceeded to cut up some twigs, and sitting up on 
their haunches squirrel or bear fashion proceeded to eat 
their supper with evident relish. The whole proceed- 
ings was very interesting to Mr. Johnson, but he finally 
concluded to see what effect his prescence would have 
on them so advanced to where he could be plainly seen. 
They did not get excited or in a hurry but moved to 
the water and leisurely swam around a neighboring 
bend of sluggish water and disappeared from view. 
A few minutes later a solitary rifle shot was heard by 
our informant and all was still as darkness came quietly 
over the lake surface, and only the distant echoes of the 
poacher’s shot, in its reverberations, awakened the si- 
lence of the quiet evening. 
Mr. Johnson had casually noted that one of the 
two beavers seemed absolutely fearless of his prescence 
and did not want to leave his feed until he had a good 
ready. And as he saw one beaver near there occasion- 
ally after that evening—but only one—and he some- 
what shy, it would seem not difficult to identify one of 
the two beavers—and the one that received the fatal 
shot from the poacher’s ready rifle. 
