number of services: first, they save soil; second, 

 they check erosion ; third, they reduce flood dam- 

 age ; fourth, they store water and help to sustain 

 stream-flow; fifth, they provide water-holes for 

 fish; and sixth, they are helpful in maintaining 

 deep waterways by reducing the extremes of both 

 high and low water, and also by reducing the 

 quantity of sediment carried down into river- 

 channels. 



I had enjoyed the ways of " our first engineers" 

 before it dawned upon me that their works might 

 be useful to man, and that the beaver through 

 his constructive handling of the natural resources 

 might justly be called a conservationist. One dry 

 winter the stream through the Moraine Colony 

 ran low and froze to the bottom, and the only 

 trout in it that survived were those in the deep 

 holes of beaver ponds. These ponds offer many 

 advantages to fish multiplication. Much food ac- 

 ceptable to the fish is swept into these ponds. 

 Altogether a beaver pond is an excellent local 

 habitation for fish. 



One gray day while I was examining a beaver 

 colony there came another demonstration of the 



214 



