BEAVERS—THEIR WAYS. 99 
pected. But it is the unexpected that happens— 
_sometimes—and proved so at that time. The water 
reached the flood point at the break-up. The ice had 
broken up and moved down in front of Washburn, 
April 4, being 22 days after the publication of the ar- 
ticle concerning the pet beaver’s prophecy of high 
water and a coming flood. On April 10, six days 
after, the Leader made the following note from its up- 
river correspondence concerning the ice break-up at 
Fort Stevenson and beyond. The Leader item—word 
for word—is.as follows: 
‘‘Mail carriers and others from up the river report 
big gorges at Fort Stevenson and above. The water 
and ice being fifteen to twenty feet on the low bottoms. 
Contractor McGinley finds the bridges all out on his 
route between Snake creek and Fort Berthold.” 
Douglass Creek mouth from where the pet beaver had 
been taken was the midst of the ice gorge and the house 
where it was born and where its parents resided, was 
fully 20 feet under water and ice for several days. 
The beaver although a captive from home had prog- 
nosticated the flood correctly. 
We can study and wonder at the beavers superior gift 
but that is all. We can neither divine or analyze it. 
