upper side of this the water flowed, and from its 

 end a canal was dug to the reservoir. 



About half of the brook was diverted, and this 

 amount of water covered the flat and formed a pond 

 to the height of the dead-wood dam in less than 

 three days. Most of the leaky openings in this 

 dam early became clogged with leaves, trash, and 

 sediment that were carried in by the water, but 

 here and there were large openings which the 

 beavers mudded themselves. The new pond was 

 a little more than one hundred feet long and 

 from forty to fifty feet wide. Its southerly shore 

 flooded into the edge of the aspen grove which 

 the beavers were planning to harvest. 



The canal was from four to five feet wide and 

 from eight to twenty inches deep. The actual dis- 

 tance that lay between the brook and the shore 

 of the new pond was ninety feet. Though the 

 diverting of the water was a task, it required less 

 labor than the building of the dam. 



With dead timber and the canal, the beavers 

 had labored two seasons for the purpose of get- 

 tingmoresupplies without abandoning the colony. 

 If in building the dam they had used the green, 



147 



