206 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
came into the region. He lingered and broke 
and rebroke the dam three or four times. When 
he finally left, autumn was half gone and prepa- 
rations for winter in the new colony were only 
well begun. The dam was still low and uncom- 
pleted. As yet they had not begun cutting and 
storing aspen for their winter’s food supply. 
These beavers had been industrious. They 
had planned well. But it was a case of one 
misfortune quickly following another. A se- 
vere cold wave still further and seriously handi- 
capped the harvest gathering of the colonists. 
The quieter reaches of the stream were frozen 
over and a heavy plating of ice was left on the 
pond. They would have difficulty transporting 
their food-cut aspens under such conditions. 
‘Winter supplies for this colony—green aspen 
or birch trees—must be had. Ordinarily, bea- 
vers cut the trees most easily obtained: first 
those on the shore of the pond, then those up 
stream, and finally those on near-by, down-hill 
slopes. Rarely does a beaver go fifty feet from 
the water. But if necessary he will go down 
stream and float trees against the current, or 
drag trees up steep slopes. This pond did not 
have, as is common, a border of aspen trees. 
Late October I visited this new wilderness 
home. In the lower end of the frozen pond was 
a two-foot hole in the ice. This had been 
