CHAPTER XVIII. 
Some FurtHer Nores on THE PRESERVATION AND 
DOMESTICATION OF THE BEAVERS. 
N the face of all discouragements to the friends of 
the beaver kind, the laws enacted for their protec- 
tion by the legislature of North Dakota are bearing good 
results. They are increasing in numbers and their re- 
appearance here no} longer creates the wonder that 
they did a few years ago. During the few months oc- 
cupied in the preliminary work on the preceeding pages, 
the author received information from various quarters on 
the west side of the Missouri River of the reappearance 
of familes of beavers or of their noticeable work along 
the small water courses and ponds. Upper Knife River 
has a flourishing colony, the Fort Berthold Indian Res- 
ervation contains a few families, while some streams 
west of Strawberry Island shelter a few families, There 
are also some bank beavers on branches of the Little 
Missouri River that are protected by resident stockmen. 
As has already been noted in a former chapter, the 
stockmen were the first promoters of the laws for the 
protection of beavers, and therefore have a kindly in- 
terest in its successful working. They had noted how 
these animals had nourished the streams they were liv- 
ing in, and after their destruction, the stagnant ponds 
and rivulets of red alkaline that followed the devious 
bed of what was once a succession of damed up 
waters clarified by sieves and falls. 
