84 Union Bay 



I could hear the faint splash of its dive, then all was quiet. 

 As I returned home I recalled the first appearance of the 

 beaver in the bay. I had never expected to see this animal 

 in a city area such as this. I had always thought of beavers 

 in terms of remote lakes and streams, where hardy trappers, 

 constantly menaced by hostile Indians, had undergone dan- 

 ger and hardship in search of the animals. I knew that a few 

 beavers, probably from somewhere high up on a mountain 

 stream, had been reported in certain parts of Lake Washing- 

 ton. But the thought that they would be seen in a city as 

 large as Seattle struck me as nearly impossible. Some years 

 passed before it was proved otherwise. 



While I was following one of the canals in spring several 

 years back I had approached a newly fallen tree. It was not 

 an unusual sight, for the grounds force often removed one to 

 prevent crowding, to widen a path or road, or to improve the 

 view. But there was something about this tree which at- 

 tracted my attention. Neither axe nor saw had leveled it. 

 There was no mistaking the hourglass cut which had brought 

 it down. The eight-inch trunk of this cottonwood had been 

 cut at an even angle both from above and below, whereas, 

 had an axe been used, a long angle from above would have 

 met an almost square cut beneath. The sharp lines of good 

 axe work were missing, the cut showed the uneven marks 

 of teeth. I had not seen the animal which did it, but the 

 condition of the tree told me that a beaver had been in the 

 marsh, and that it might be there still, for the cut was new 

 and the leaves of the tree fresh and unwithered. 



I knew quite a lot about the beaver. What resident who 

 was acquainted with the early history of the Northwest did 

 not? I had studied it in the laboratory and knew where, in 

 the scheme of things, science had placed this highly special- 

 ized animal. I knew its dental formula and how it could cut 

 down five- or six-inch trees in almost as many minutes. I had 

 seen it now and then on mountain streams and had run 



