THE PERSISTENT BEAVER 55 
Every remaining colonist worked day and night 
to build a dam on the stream just above their 
pond. They worked like beavers. This new 
pond caught and stopped the sediment. It was 
apparently built for this purpose. 
The colonists who remained repaired only 
two of the five houses, and between these they 
piled green aspen and willow for winter food. 
But before a tree was cut they built a dam to 
the north of their home. Water for this was 
obtained by a ditch or canal dug from the 
stream at a point above the sediment-catching 
pond. When the new pond was full, a low 
grassy ridge about twenty feet across separated 
it from the old one. A canal about three feet 
wide and from one to two feet deep was cut 
through the ridge, to connect the two ponds. 
The aspens harvested were taken from the slope 
of a moraine beyond the north shore of the new 
pond. The canal and the new pond greatly 
shortened the land distance over which the 
trees had to be dragged, and this made har- 
vesting safer, speedier, and easier. 
Occasionally the beavers did daytime work. 
While on the lookout one afternoon an old 
beaver waddled up the slope and stopped by 
a large standing aspen that had been left by the 
other workers. At the very bottom this tree 
was heavily swollen. The old beaver took a 
