Beaver Work 



next task was to build a lodge on the point above ; 

 then they dug a canal through the bog to the 

 nearest grove of hardwood, and cut down a liberal 

 part of the trees for their winter supply of bark. 

 The branches of these trees had been cut into 

 convenient lengths, floated through the canal, and 

 stored in a great food-pile in the deep water near 

 the lodge. 



When I found the dam, several deer (to judge 

 from the tracks) were already using the top of it 

 as a runway in passing from the flooded ground 

 on one side of the pond to the other. From either 

 end a game-trail led upward along the shore, no 

 longer following immemorial paths over the bog, 

 which was submerged with all its splendor of color, 

 but making a new and rougher way through the 

 black growth. When I followed one of these trails 

 it led me completely around the pond, going con- 

 fidently till it neared the salt-lick, where it halted, 

 wavered and trickled out in aimless wanderings. 

 There, where once the ground was trodden smooth 

 by many feet, was now no ground to be seen. The 

 precious spring, over which a thousand generations 

 of deer had lingered, had vanished in a dull waste 

 of water. Twice I watched the place from early 

 morning till owls began to cry the twilight; in 

 that time only a few animals appeared, singly, at 

 long intervals; and after wandering about as if 



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