122 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



beaver propels it to its under-water storage place near its lodge, 

 where — the wood being green and heavy — it is easily secured 

 from floating up and away, by placing a little mud over one end 

 or by interlocking the stick with the rest of the pile. The 

 green wood, however, soon becomes waterlogged and gives no 

 further trouble. Thus, when the lake or river is frozen over, 

 the beaver — for it does not hibernate — may live in comfort 

 all winter long in its weather-proof lodge with plenty of food 

 stored beneath the ice and just beyond the watery doorway of 

 its home. 



HUNTING THE BEAVER 



The hunters, arriving at a small lake that lay about three 

 miles to the northwest of Rear Lake, crossed it, and turning up 

 a winding creek, followed the little river until they came to a 

 beaver dam which caused the stream to expand into another 

 little lake that flooded far beyond its old water-line. In it 

 was to be seen three beaver lodges. 



Oo-koo-hoo said the scene was somewhat altered since he had 

 visited it four years before, as the dam had been increased both 

 in height and length, and the pond, increasing, too, had reached 

 out close to many a tree that formerly stood some distance from 

 the water. It was a beautiful little mere containing a few 

 spruce-crowned islands, and surrounded by thickly wooded 

 hills whose bases were well fringed with poplars, birches, wil- 

 lows, and alders — an ideal home for beaver. Among the little 

 islands stood three snow-capped beaver lodges. Here and 

 there wide-spreading, wind-packed carpets of snow covered 

 the ice, while in between big stretches of clear, glassy ice, 

 acting as skylights, lit up the beavers' submarine gardens 

 around their ice-locked homes. 



The hunters were accompanied by three of their dogs, and 

 before they had time to decide where they should first begin 

 work, the dogs began barking at a point between the west lodge 



