CHAPTER XV 
FAMINE IN BEAVER-LAND 
new beaver neighbours had laid in 
their winter’s food. They had _har- 
vested one food supply several miles down stream 
but a fierce forest fire had devastated the region 
while they were in the midst of their preparations 
for winter and left their home site unliveable. 
The beavers in a body started off to found a 
new colony, having the hardships and adventures 
that ever fall to pioneers. 
The place selected for their new home was on 
a tributary stream not far from my cabin. 
Here they built a typical house of sticks, sod, and 
mud. The stream ran through an old glacier 
meadow partly overgrown with forest. One 
side carried a belt of pines. Beyond the pines 
was a ragged and extensive growth of quaking 
aspen. Up stream the mountain rose steeply 
to the summit of Mt. Meeker. 
While the beavers were working on a dam 
which was to give them ample water in the pond 
to prevent its freezing to the bottom, a trapper 
205 
Co weather came one fall before my 
