148 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



" The slide, which was 300 feet wide and 30 feet 

 deep, was caused by the bursting of an old beaver 

 dam high up in the mountains. District Supt. 

 MacKay, at Revelstoke, says that the dam burst 

 under the pressure of heavy rain storms last week. 

 The slide carried the track away completely and it 

 went clear across the Kicking Horse River, damming 

 that stream and endangering the track above the 

 slide. The river was completely blocked up, and it 

 was found necessary to blast a new channel for the 

 stream to release the pent-up waters which threat- 

 ened to cause a washout further east. 



" The Canadian Pacific Railway had two steam 

 shovels and a hundred men at work. Huge trees 

 were brought down with the slide and boulders 

 nearly as big as a box car made the job of clearing 

 the track a difficult one. Some of the trees that 

 came down bore the marks of the little animals' 

 teeth, and the supports of the dam erected by the 

 beavers were plainly marked as such by the bleach- 

 ing of their upper ends and the lower points coated 

 with mud and slime. 



" Those of the delayed westbound passengers who 

 arrived this morning expressed themselves as very 

 well satisfied with the manner in which they were 

 treated by the company. 



" Fourteen trains, east and west-bound, were 

 stalled by the slide. Some of the passengers were 

 transferred across the wash slide over a narrow foot- 

 bridge, and others who were bound east were routed 



