We had visited the scene of opera- 

 tions at least twice every day during 

 the building and had casually discussed 

 the probable difficulty in reaching the 

 old trail up the river, but had not con- 

 sidered the matter seriously. One day 

 Bige and I dragged our boat up over 

 the dam and rowed up the river. Above 

 the end of the wing dam the forest was 

 flooded five hundred or more feet on 

 each side of the river, and if we wished 

 to follow the old trail we should have to 

 wade through water at least as far as 

 that; for it was impossible to push the 

 boat through the woods, between the 

 trees and bushes. 



It was all very well and very inter- 

 esting to watch the operations of the 

 beaver, but rfiis was carrying a joke 

 too far. The beavers were now inter- 

 fering with our business. The beavers 

 are, of course, protected by law, but 

 here were hundreds of fine spruce, hem- 

 lock, pine and balsam trees being 

 drowned in our presence. The trees 



49 



