could see the pile of wood below the 

 surface of the water and we could see 

 no stones on the pile. 



Bige stoutly argued in support of the 

 theory that the beaver sucked the air 

 out of the pores in the wood, that the 

 water fl6wed into the vacuum thus pro- 

 duced, making the stick heavy enough 

 to sink. In order to demonstrate his 

 theory, Bige took the axe from camp, 

 cut a poplar sapling an inch and a half 

 in diameter and the usual beaver length, 

 put one end in the water and sucked on 

 the other end of the stick. After re- 

 peated trials and failures to make the 

 stick do anything but float, Bige decided 

 that his "sucker was not powerful 

 enough." The next day, looking down 

 into the water from our boat, we saw 

 one end of the axe-cut stick in the wood 

 pile with other sticks cut by beaver 

 teeth. 



After my return to the city, Bige 

 reported from time to time, making 

 visits to the beaver house, seeing beaver 



25 



