THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 83 



builders of the dam are gone, and the wood pile 

 near the house tells the sad story. It has scarcely 

 been touched since with infinite labour the little 

 colonists had collected it for their winter food ; 

 the winter they would never know, for the steel 

 trap had come to those peaceful woods, and had 

 accomplished its deadly work. Silently each night 

 by the side of the dam had it closed its relentless 

 jaws on the beaver that had come to repair the 

 unexplained break in the well-built structure. 

 Each night saw the colony dwindle in numbers, 

 until of the nine, old and young, but one remained, 

 too frightened to venture out by day or by night, 

 for fear of meeting the fate of the other members 

 of the family whose death she had several times 

 witnessed. She had been powerless to assist. She 

 had seen her father and mother, her brothers and 

 sisters suddenly clutched by the foot and dragged 

 under water. She had dived down to see what it 

 meant, and had seen them struggling at the bottom, 

 trying in vain to break free from the iron thing 

 and the heavy chain which had slid down the 

 inclined pole. A few frantic efforts and the end 

 came. No more bubbles rose to the surface, all 

 was quiet again and there was one less beaver in 

 the world. Not understanding the constant repeti- 

 tion of the tragedy, she was simply seized with 

 fear, and she kept away from the place which 

 seemed to be the cause of so much misery. Even 

 when she saw, by the lowering of the water in the 



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