276 SIR WILLIAM EAMSAY 



bright sunshine, cowboys dressed for the part, with 

 flowers in their buttonholes and riding well-groomed 

 horses. 



In 1912 they saw the other side of the picture. Every- 

 thing was late and harvesting had to be hurried, and the 

 " boys " had to give up being picturesque and work 

 their hardest. Then on the third or fourth day a heavy 

 snowfall came, covering the entire country some inches 

 deep. Sheep then had to be rounded up on the moun- 

 tains and brought down into winter quarters, and last of 

 all came the excitement of a supposed outbreak of swine- 

 fever. The snow went as suddenly as it came, the 

 swine-fever was a false alarm, but these few days gave 

 an insight into the troubles of the simple life and the 

 difficulties that had to be faced by the pioneers. The 

 weather became lovely again, and Ramsay, whose love 

 for animals was always very strong, found a new interest 

 in the study of the colony of beavers which had been 

 the irrigation engineers of the valley for many years. 

 The Ranche lies among the foothills of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and close to it runs in winter and crawls in 

 summer a " creek," that is, a small river or large stream. 

 Quite near the house the beavers have built a dam which 

 has had the effect of widening out the creek into a small 

 lake just where the water can conveniently be brought 

 to the house and garden. The lake is covered with little 

 islands, probably formed originally by the remains of 

 earlier dams, silted up with mud and driftwood, and 

 now overgrown with cottonwood trees and undergrowths. 



