192 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



place as they are exposed to attack while going to and fro. It was 

 reported to me that one beaver had been killed there this season by 

 some animal. This large grove should afford a supply of food for 

 some years to come. I am interested to see what will be the outcome 

 there, so I have marked the stumps of the trees cut by beaver, over 

 300 in all, by pounding the end of a half-inch iron pipe into them, 

 making a circular mark in the wood. This will enable a future 

 observer to identify the new cuttings. 



Another use of a series of ponds is the protection which they give 

 one another in times of high water. A dam backs water up against 

 the dam above, strengthening it and helping it to resist increased 

 pressures, while the ponds and dams still farther above, by holding 

 back the flood water, distribute it more evenly and relieve the ponds 

 below. To man, beaver ponds are useful in conserving the water 

 supply, retaining much of the rain and snow which would otherwise 

 pass off at once and go to waste. 



South Fork of Elk Creek. A mile from Camp Roosevelt along 

 the main highway, a road branches off to the Petrified Tree. Along 

 this road one is immediately interested by the series of beaver ponds 

 and the belt of tall dead timber in the ravine below. A fine forest 

 sweeps up the slope beyond. The dead timber was killed by flooding 

 as the result of a series of beaver dams built along the small stream 

 in recent years. The area was practically abandoned after the 

 beavers had used up all the aspens nearly to the head of the ravine. 

 They are still at work intermittently on the few remaining large 

 aspens in the swale opposite the Petrified Tree ; but little or no effort 

 is made to keep in repair the works below. The ravine is a tangle 

 of silty ponds and grass-grown dams, through which many sluices 

 and channels drain the water. Apparently the beavers use it chiefly 

 as a highway now. 



Lower down on the South Fork, in the forest just above the 

 Yancey cabins, is a newer series of ponds and dams ; but the same 

 process of flooding the spruce flat and using up the aspen is going 

 on steadily, and by and by the occupants will have to seek new homes. 

 Whether the colony there migrated from the upper part of the 

 stream or from some other locality is an interesting question. 



North Fork of Elk Creek. Other groups of ponds which at least 

 some of the visitors see, are those on the North Fork of Elk Creek, 

 to the west of Yanceys, and on the high flat between the North and 

 South Forks. In the former group is a very long dam, 350 feet in 



