scattering as the season advanced. Rambles were 

 made up and down stream, other beaver settle- 

 ments visited, brief stays made at lakes, adven- 

 tures had up shallow brooks, and daring journeys 

 made on portages. The country was explored. 

 The dangers and restrictions imposed during the 

 last twenty-five years appear in some localities 

 to have checked this movement, and in others to 

 have stopped it completely. But in most colonies 

 it still goes on, though probably not usually en- 

 joyed by mothers and children except to a limited 

 extent. 



By the first of September all have returned to 

 the home, or joined another colony or assembled 

 at the place where a new colony is to be founded. 

 This annual vacation probably sustained the health 

 of the colonists; they got away from the parasites 

 and the bad air of their houses. The outing was 

 taken for the sheer joy of it. Incidentally, it brought 

 beaver into new territory and acquainted them 

 with desirable colony-sites and the route thereto, 

 useful information in case the colonists were 

 compelled suddenly to abandon the old home. 



It is natural for the beaver to be silent. In 



133 



