a few animals from each colony, when 

 they would move their traps to another 

 dam. Thus there were always enough 

 beaver left for breeding and they in- 

 creased rapidly. But the white trappers, 

 when they came, caught every beaver 

 and took every skin, big and little, with 

 the result that in a few years' time, 

 beaver had been exterminated from the 

 Adirondack forests and none ever came 

 in again. 



A few days after our encounter with 

 the animal as above related, we learned, 

 while making inquiries, that during the 

 previous season the Conservation Com- 

 mission of the State had " plan ted" a 

 family of six beavers on one of the 

 streams emptying into Raquette Lake, 

 and we concluded that the individual 

 we met was an emigrant from that 

 colony. 



Upon studying the government map, 

 we figured that if he followed a chain of 

 lakes and ponds through the connecting 

 streams, he must have traveled thirty- 



15 



