each year cease to flow for a period, yet on 

 these brooks are all other beaver requirements 

 except a permanent, sufficient water-supply. By 

 dam-building water is stored for to-morrow, or 

 stream-courses changed, and with the assistance 

 of canals water is diverted to a dry ravine where 

 a colony is established. 



The dam is the largest and in many respects 

 the most influential beaver work. Across a stream 

 it is an inviting thoroughfare for the folk of the 

 wild. As soon as a dam is completed, it becomes 

 a wilderness highway. It is used day and night. 

 Across it go bears and lions, rabbits and wolves, 

 mice and porcupines; chipmunks use it for a 

 bridge, birds alight upon it, trout attempt to leap 

 it, and in the evening the graceful deer cast their 

 reflections with the willows in its quiet pond. 

 Across it dash pursuer arid pursued. Upon it 

 take place battles and courtships. Often it is 

 torn by hoof and claw. Death struggles stain it 

 with blood. Many a drama, romantic and pic- 

 turesque, fierce and wild, is staged upon the 

 beaver dam. 



The beaver dam gives new character to the 



73 



