208 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
inches in diameter and perhaps twenty feet 
long. Preparatory to being dragged to the 
pond they had been gnawed into sections of 
from three to six feet. 
The beavers had not nearly finished their 
harvesting when a heavy fall of snow came and 
they were compelled to abandon their carefully 
made dragway and the aspen grove where they 
had been cutting. The nearest aspens now 
available were only sixty feet from the edge 
of the pond. But a thick belt of pines and a 
confusion of large, fallen, fire-killed spruce logs 
lay between the pond and this aspen grove. 
Deep snow, thick pines, and fallen logs did 
not stop their harvest-gathering efforts. Tracks 
in the snow showed that they went to work 
beyond the belt of pines. During one night 
five beavers had wallowed out to the aspens, 
felled several and dragged them into the pond. 
But wolves appeared to realize the distress of 
the beavers. They lurked about for opportuni- 
ties to seize these hunger-driven animals. While 
harvesting the aspen grove wolves had pounced 
upon one of the beavers at work and another 
on his way to the pond had been pursued, over- 
taken, and killed in the deep snow. 
During three days of good weather which 
followed, ever watchful for wolves, the beavers 
cut few aspens. Then came another snowstorm. 
