36 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER - 
dams by the united efforts of many beavers. 
Never having seen any heavier than nine pounds, 
I cannot guarantee the correctness of the trappers’ 
statement, but Mills is a careful and very accurate 
observer and thoroughly reliable. Generally speak- 
ing, it is not wise to be too incredulous, and any 
information, to have value, should be the result of 
very careful, personal observation. Otherwise the 
source of the information should be given. Many 
of the trappers are blessed with a keen and rather 
subtle sense of humour, and few things give them 
greater pleasure than filling up the stranger with 
yarns, and they derive a real joy if they ever 
happen to see these same yarns in print, especially 
if the “facts” are given as though they were 
entirely original with the writer. On more than 
one occasion has a trapper told me of how he had 
tricked the tenderfoot into believing most fabulous 
stories of the ways of wild animals. Some of 
course tell of strange happenings, not with the idea 
of having fun, but they enlarge on already much 
enlarged stories that have been retailed to them. 
Few stories shrink in the telling, while most grow 
with alarming vigour, and if we would believe all 
that is told of beavers our minds would be filled 
with most marvellous “facts” more wonderful, 
even though less reasonable, than what is accom- 
plished by these interesting animals. 
In practically everything that is done by them 
we can, if we use a little care, discover the object, 
