204 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



done recently. The tree was seen from time to time and on August 

 28 was still standing, but on September 4 was found to have been 

 felled (figure 52). The tree measured 4.6 feet in circumference 

 above the notch when standing. 



Why does a beaver occasionally cut a tree and leave it where it 

 has fallen, unused? Frankly, I do not know. I have in mind a 

 lodgepole pine, about 4 feet in circumference, which we found 

 on Tower Creek by the large spring, about two miles above Tower 

 Fall. Beaver had cut it, and there it lay untouched. Across the 

 stump lay another conifer which they had also cut, and likewise had 

 not used. It looks almost like wanton waste. The big lodgepole 

 pine was difficult cutting, being of harder wood, and the chips beside 

 it were much smaller than those cut from aspens. I have found 

 some of the latter nearly seven inches long, while the largest pine 

 chips were about four inches long. 



The height of stumps varies, ordinarily ranging from 6 to 20 

 inches. I found a few from 2 to 3 inches high, and a group 

 of half a dozen from 3 to 4 feet high. One curious thing 

 about these last is that the trunks were lying there unused. They 

 appear to have been cut when deep snow was on the ground. In 

 Colorado I have found the beaver active in the snow, as shown in 

 figures 53 and 54. 



The largest stump cut by a beaver, of which I have personal 

 knowledge, is a cottonwood in the Colorado Museum of Natural 

 History, at Denver, which is 2 feet, 5.5 inches in diameter, and 

 came from the Platte River above Denver. Director J. D. Figgins 

 writes me that there is evidence of long intervals between the 

 periods of cutting on this stump. Enos Mills mentions one stump 

 of 3 feet, 6 inches in diameter, on the Jefferson River, Montana, 

 near the mouth of Pipestone Creek. 



Some measurements were made with the idea of ascertaining how 

 far a beaver will go from water to cut a tree, but the results were 

 rather inconclusive. At Crescent Lake old stumps were found 220 

 feet from the water's edge, but there were no trees farther away, 

 and there seem to have been none formerly. This was the greatest 

 distance found. At Lost Creek they foraged 175 feet away from 

 the ponds, in this case to the limit of the aspens and the beginning 

 of the pines (figure 45). 



As cold weather approaches the beaver begins to make provision 

 for the winter ; so that besides seeing that the dam is in good order. 



