pleted, high water following three days 

 of rain washed away the dam. The 

 beavers at once rebuilt the dam in the 

 same spot, but within a month the dam 

 had been the second time washed away. 

 The high water of the following spring 

 carried the dam, rebuilt in the fall, off 

 of the flat rock for the third time. 



On the smooth flat surface of this 

 rock there was no suitable anchorage 

 for a darn, and the unusual pressure of 

 high and swift flowing water pushed it 

 down stream and scattered the materials 

 of which it was built. 



It was a bad dam-site! and this is 

 doubtless what the Chief Engineer told 

 the youngsters ; for it was at this period 

 that the Chief took a hand in the game. 



The house that had been built above 

 the flat rock was abandoned and was 

 never again occupied. 



A pair of beavers which we believed 

 to be the hard luck animals above men- 

 tioned, we now found were beginning 

 operations on a new dam about a quar- 



46 



