Geological Gleanings. 137 



Our guide and pilot in descending the river, Prevost, who was an 

 old trapper, hired by Mr. A. at St Louis for the trip, soon dis- 

 covered signs of the beaver, and presently a newly constructed 

 beaver-house about one hundred yards above the boat. It was 

 too late to examine the premises, and after cutting wood, building 

 a fire, and cooking our supper, we turned in for the night. Very 

 early in the morning, before breakfasting, we hastened to examine 

 w at had been the object of more than one expedition on the 

 Yellowstone, and which had, heretofore bafBed our search. Pre- 

 vost assured us that the noise and smell of smoke, and cooking 

 from our camp, must have driven the beaver to a place of safety 

 soon after our landing the night before, and that we could only 

 gratify our curiosity by the inspection of the building ; whereas, 

 had daylight permitted, we might, at first landing, have proceeded 

 quietly and stopped the covered outlet from the house to the water, 

 and thus secured the inmates, and this only by using the utmost 

 caution in approaching without giving them the wind of us, or 

 making the slightest noise, even the cracking of a dry twig under* 

 our feet ; so religiously did he believe in their superhuman sagacity 

 in discovering and avoiding danger. Thus assured, I took my 

 gun, more from the influence of the habit of some months of seldom 

 stirring from camp without it, than from any expectation of seeing 

 a beaver. I followed the water to the outlet, while others took 

 the bank ; here I stood watching the operations of those above, 

 who had commenced removing the branches of cotton-wood which 

 formed the covering of the domicile. I was startled suddenly by 

 the splashing of the water at jny feet, and, looking down, I saw 

 the dusky back of a beaver a few inches under the surface, gliding 

 out into the deep water of the river, and before I could prepare 

 and bring my gun into position, he was out of sight. Nothing 

 could have been easier, had I been prepared, than to have shot 

 him as he thus passed within three feet of the spot on which I 

 stood. Thus, from too much reliance on popular tradition of the 

 unerring instinct of this animal, was I prevented from adding the 

 skin, and description, and measurements of a fresh specimen of 

 the beaver to the trophies of our expedition. As the beaver 

 passed down the stream he was seen to rise for air, abreast of our 

 boat, by some of the men on board. We then proceeded to un- 

 roof the house by removing the cotton-wood branches, which 

 covered it for several feet in thickness ; they extended for a con- 

 siderable width on each side, and covered the passage from the 



