from the lower vent and, alighting upon an ice- 

 coated boulder, indifferent to the gray sky from 

 which scattered flakes were slowly falling and de- 

 spite a temperature of five below zero, he sang 

 low and sweetly for several seconds. 



Beaver do not surrender themselves to the con- 

 fines of a house and pond until cold solidly 

 covers the pond with a roof of ice. The time of 

 this is commonly about the first of December, 

 but the date is of course, in a measure, depend- 

 ent upon latitude, altitude, and the peculiar 

 weather conditions of each year. Most beaver 

 return to the old colony, or start a new one by 

 the first of September. They have had a merry 

 rambling summer and energetically take hold to 

 have the house and dam ready and a harvest 

 stored by the time winter begins. 



But they are not always ready. Enemies may 

 harass them, low water delay them, or an un- 

 usually early winter or even a heavy snow may 

 so hamper them that, despite greatest effort, the 

 ice puts a time lock upon the pond and closes them 

 in for the winter without sufficient supplies. 



Early one October an early snowfall worked 



200 



