48 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
gnawed down a number of aspens that had es- 
caped the fire. These were in a grove several 
hundred feet down stream from the pond. A 
few nights later they commenced to drag the 
felled aspens up stream into their pond. This 
was difficult work, for midway between the 
grove and the pond was a waterfall. The beaver 
had to drag each aspen out of the water and up 
a steep bank and make a portage around the 
falls. 
The second night of this up-stream transpor- 
tation a mountain lion had lain in wait by the 
falls. Tracks and marks on the muddy slope 
showed that he had made an unsuccessful leap 
for two beavers on the portage. The following 
morning an aspen of eighty pounds’ weight 
which two beavers had evidently been dragging 
was lying on the slope. The lion had not only 
missed, but on the muddy slope he slipped and 
received a ducking in the deep water-hole below. 
Transportation up stream was stopped. The 
remainder of the felled aspens were piled into a 
near-by ‘‘safety pond.” A shallow stream which 
beavers use. for a thoroughfare commonly has in 
it a safety pond which they maintain as a har- 
bour, diving into it in case of attack. Usually 
winter food is stored within a few feet of the 
house, but in this case it was nearly six hundred 
feet away. In storing it in the safety pond, the 
