82 BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 
their wild state, can testify. 
At the Painted Woods Lake there is another case 
of the beavers reasoning powers and of their skill and 
forethought. Mention in a former chapter has already 
been made of the last colony of beavers there and of 
their status up tothe closing days of October, 1903. 
Before the ice had frozen the lake down in November, 
another family of beavers had appeared with those on 
the Shulteen homestead and became very close neigh- 
bors of those beavers already located there. Although 
ice had formed, they built up a house and heavily plas- 
tered it with dredgings from the lake. Where this fam- 
ily had come frow, no one of the lake dwellers seem to 
know, and in truth—few cared. Three miles below the 
Shulteen place the lake narrows to a small creek, the 
outlet from the lake to the Missouri. Here three small 
but strong dams were found, that, on observation would 
raise the entire lake level at least eighteen inches. The 
work was done late in the season and in so doing pre- 
vented their work being undone by the evil disposed. 
Ice once formed they could defy the evil machinations 
of the dynamiting dam breaker. They would have 
by the raise of water thus secured—many unused holes 
made habitable and fit for refuge in case their winter 
dwellings were desecrated or destroyed and they had 
escaped those awful clasps of iron. In these holes in 
the banks they could remain unnoticed for a long time, 
though hunger might appall them in their enforced re- 
treat. Nor were the beavers alone benefitted by the 
daming of the lake’s waters. Owners of lands ad- 
joining the lake, whether grass lands or cultivated fields 
would benefit much from the irrigation works of these 
