MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY. 355 



mains of several old ones near the post of Fort Verde. Buyiotwith- 

 standing the plentitude of beavers not one had before been seen, 

 although the streams had been forded at night and in the evening 

 many times. Tliis one was seen on a cloudy day, after a shower, and 

 was shot from an ambush as it swam slowly down the river channel, 

 with only its head visible above the surface of the water most of the 

 time, although it sometimes floated higher and drifted like a board. 

 It was so large and heavy that it was with difficulty removed to a 

 small tree and hung up in the shade. 



August 11, 1884, Port Verde, Arizona. — Visited a spot two miles 

 above the post where beavers had been hard at work cutting cotton- 

 wood trees and lopping off the branches close to the trunk. Well- 

 worn paths had been made by them when carrying the branches to 

 the river. I was walking silently and cautiously in the shade of the 

 cottonwoods at a place where the bluff bank was about 10 feet 

 high, when I noticed a ripple proceeding from the nearer shore 

 beneath some jutting roots and brushwood, and crept stealthily to 

 the shore and saw that there was a great commotion in the water. 

 In fact, the whole stream was quaking from the rapid movements 

 of some animal beneath the surface. Soon the head of a large 

 beaver emerged from the shallow water on the opposite side, and in 

 a moment another and another. , It proved to be a beaver mother 

 giving instructions to her kittens in the art of swimming. I quickly 

 pulled both triggers of my shotgun. Then there was a splash, and 

 for a moment the water and sand fairly boiled, after which there 

 was only the spasmodic kicking and flapping of a wounded beaver, 

 which was secured, not however without difficulty, from a dangerous 

 quicksand among some stranded snags of trees about which the 

 beavers had been trying to build a dam. On this account the beaver 

 colony was not subsequently molested by me, as I was desirous of 

 observing their method of work on the attempted dam. 



August 21, 188 Jf., Fort Verde, Arizona. — ^This evening I repaired to 

 the spot where I shot the beaver and watched for these animals 

 until it was pitch dark. I saw a large beaver at work on the dam, 

 but it flapped its tail on the water and dived upstream, and I did 

 not see it again. As the darkness increased I could hear them 

 splashing in the water and flapping their tails on the ground with a 

 sharp thud from time to time, but I could see nothing, as the night 

 was dark save when a distant flash of lightning illumined the. water 

 for a second. 



August 22; 1884, Fort Verde, Arizona. — ^The beavers are putting 

 forth strenuous efforts to cut down all the timber near their dam. 

 I am interested to see whether they will actually succeed in cutting 

 off some large trees from which they have stripped the bark and on 



