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BEAVERS—TH#IR WAYS. 91 
1c lack of rain, as moisture will attract moisture and 
n a few years the rainfall would increase wonderfully.” 
One of Burleigh County’s officials —once a trapper— 
narrated the following incident to the writer a few years 
ago, concerning the fate of the last of the Apple Creek 
_ beavers that had escaped from the traps of‘‘Big”Proctor. 
_ During the month of August, 1889, found he himself on 
the headwaters of Apple Creek, with rifle in hand. He 
‘was surprised to find a haii finished dam bracing the 
current which he at first took to be the work of musk- 
rats, that frequently make small dams to give them 
selves plenty of water in case of a freeze down. 
But the practiced eye of the trapper had detected 
superior work in the angles of the dam and he made a 
closer inspection, when lo and behold, the imprint of 
beaver feet were found in the soft mud. The sun was 
slowly sinking behind the jagged.breaks of the Missou- 
ri River, and the intervening bluffs were casting their 
lenghtening shadow. A cool breeze raised ripples on 
the water and the flags, fox tails and wild rice were nodd- 
ing to the motion of the gentle zephyrs. How beautiful 
it all appeared to the trapper—but not to him alone. 
At the upper end of the dam two small beavers were 
at work among the willows. They had much to do and 
had commenced their work early, for times and tide do 
not wait for man neither do they for beavers. These 
two kittens had somehow escaped the general slaughter 
of the spring trapper down the creek and nad wandered 
here where instinct—we may call it—bade them prepare 
for the coming cold. They had lost fathers, mothers, 
sisters and brothers by the hands of wicked trappers— 
