THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 103 
hunted strive to outdo each other in alertness, 
when tragedies were registered by the red seal of 
blood where the victims fell. Nothing of all this 
was known to the beaver who, housed so comfort- 
ably by their own foresight and industry, lived in 
complete peace, fearing nothing but man and otter 
during this season so dreaded by the homeless. 
Who shall say whether they even knew of the 
many visits paid to their lodge by wolverines, lynx, 
fishers and wolves? These hunger-driven creatures 
could smell the hidden beaver as the scent rose 
from the house, and their tell-tale footprints on the 
fresh-fallen snow showed how often they approached 
the house as though in hope of finding some unex- 
pected way of getting into it. Well they knew 
that their visits were fruitless, for not even the 
powerful wolf could dig his way through the ice- 
bound, tangled walls. Perhaps the beaver could 
hear or smell their foolish visitors ; if so they must 
have experienced unbounded satisfaction in the 
knowledge of their self-made security, which was 
the result of so much hard work and skill. 
Winter at last began to give way to the lengthen- 
ing hours of sunshine. The weather ceased to be 
so piercingly cold, and the throbbing shafts of light 
from the aurora borealis no longer brightened the 
sky at night. The snow became soft and slushy, 
and the ice broke away from the banks of lakes and 
rivers. As the streams, fed by all this melting 
material, grew with alarming speed, the stillness of 
