Cofony in TW 



and in others not until autumn. Ponds that have 

 large pure streams running through them do not 

 need this emptying, but occasionally they acci- 

 dentally have it. Most beaver colonies are deserted 

 in summer, and fall thus into temporary decline. 

 By late summer or early autumn the beaver 

 have assembled at the place where the winter is 

 to be spent. There are patriarchs, youngsters, 

 and those in the prime of life. Around the old 

 home are many who set forth from it when the 

 violets were blooming, when the grass was at its 

 greenest, and when mated birds were building. 

 During the summer a few perished, while others 

 cast their lot with other established colonies. A 

 few of the younger make a start for themselves 

 in new scenes, found a new colony. Again the 

 dam is repaired and the house recovered; again 

 the harvest home, and again a primitive home- 

 building family are housed in a hut that willing 

 hands have fashioned. Again the pond freezes, 

 and again the snowfalls upon a home that stands 

 in a valley where countless generations of beaver 

 have lived through ice-bound winters and the 

 ever-changing happy seasons. 



