532 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 3, 1909. 
how level the line of the dam is constructed 
to prevent washouts, the water passing over 
gently in high water. 
At about 10 o’clock one morning we cut out 
four feet of the dam, one foot deep, to see 
the beaver repair it. We returned about 4 p. m. 
and found the water lowered about ten inches. 
We hid in the grass expecting that about sun¬ 
set the beavers would repair the break, and we 
could see them at work, if not able to get a 
photograph. We made the mistake of hiding 
about twenty-five feet from the cut instead of 
one hundred feet and away from the dam. 
We soon saw two black spots in the water 
moving gently toward the dam and supposed 
they would go directly to work. Instead they 
swam around about thirty feet from the break 
and investigated, showing only the tops of their 
heads, about the size of your hand, folded. One 
came around on the side where we were hidden 
and although we lay as closely as possible, our 
caps and eyes were visible, and he evidently saw 
us. He came up very slowly and without any 
commotion to about six feet from us and 
watched us a few seconds, then sank under 
water and both beavers went away. We won¬ 
dered if one told the other of his discovery, be¬ 
cause they were about fifty feet apart, and both 
went away. In an hour three came down from 
the houses and went through the same maneu¬ 
vers, then disappeared, and we gave up the idea 
of seeing them work. 
In the morning we found the dam quite se¬ 
curely repaired, as shown in the third picture. 
The work was done better than we could have 
done it in the same time. The beaver had not 
used any of the sticks that we had handled, but 
had procured fresh ones. 
The beaver have been protected in Michigan 
for some years and are now quite abundant. 
William H. Holden. 
Big Game Dying in the Rockies. 
Denver, Colo., March 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Denver Post item which follows 
I believe to be true. It appeared March 17 and 
says: 
“Twenty or more elk and deer, marooned by 
the deep snow and starving in their mountain 
haunts above Mt. Carbon, Gunnison county, were 
found by deputy game wardens on snowshoes 
and removed by them to the lowlands on sleds. 
The emaciated animals were so weak that they 
were unable to escape their captors. 
“Never before in the history of Colorado has 
the State game department been forced to such 
novel yet humane methods in the saving of this 
noble game. Besides hauling down the moun¬ 
tain on sleds the score or more of these ani¬ 
mals, the wardens also made a trail through the 
ten and fifteen feet of snow in order to allow 
some 1,000 other deer and elk to make their 
way down to the ranches, where ample food 
had been secured for them. 
“State Game Commissioner Farr sent three 
deputies to Gunnison county last week as soon 
as the marooned animals were discovered and 
he was notified. Since then these deputies have 
saved 80 per cent, of the starving beasts. 
Prompted by love of humanity, ranchmen in 
that vicinity not only aided the State officers 
in their work, but also furnished hay and other 
food without thought of recompense. Mean¬ 
time Commissioner Farr conferred with Gover¬ 
nor Shafroth and the latter authorized the pay¬ 
ment of the forage bills by the State for the 
care of its children of the wilds. 
“The heavy snows throughout the State this 
winter have forced the deer and elk and other 
game from the mountains to the lowlands for 
food and protection. The figures of the game 
commissioner’s office show that some 3,000 or 
more of these animals have been cared for. 
Under instructions all deputy ^ame wardens 
have been unprecedentedly active in hunting for 
marooned herds. Besides those found in the 
Gunnison there were two other herds sought 
out, one in Grand county and the other in the 
VIEW OF THE DAM AFTER IT HAD BEEN REPAIRED. 
White River country. Theye were cared for 
and well fed at the expense of the State.” 
This has been an exceptionally hard winter 
on game. J. D. Pender. 
On the Road Between Gardiner, Montana,' 
AND New York City, March 2^.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I had occasion to run up to the 
Mammoth Hot Springs a few days ago. I saw 
a great many antelope, but am sorry to say 
many of them are dying. I saw one that looked 
as though it could not last many hours longer 
and a number of those that had died but a short 
time before. Mule deer are dying in the same 
way. From investigations made by Major Ben¬ 
son, superintendent of the park, it is estimated 
that the death of these animals may be caused 
by spinal meningitis or some. disease of that 
nature. There are so many hundreds of animals 
crowded into this vicinity that it is a wonder 
more are not carried off by disease. 
The snow is well off the lower country and 
southern slopes. There is considerable snow at 
Ft. Y'ellowstone and a great deal in the park. 
At the Yellowstone Lake it is very many feet 
deep and Ben Sheffield reports four and a half 
feet at Jackson Lake, six feet at Milligan’s 
(Jackson’s Meadows), and he says the soldiers 
report eight feet at Snake River station; that 
the soldiers have in several places nailed boards 
on top of the telephone poles where they sit and 
rest while snowshoeing between the station and 
the Thumb Yellowstone Lake. I know of drifts 
fifty feet deep along the lake shore, but I could 
not give the exact height of the telephone poles, 
Sheffield tells me the people in Jackson’s 
Hole are feeding about 25,000 elk, and that there 
are about 40,000 in all that country. Of those 
being fed about 4,000 are at Jackson, Wyoming, 
2,000 about half a mile north of Jackson, 8,000 
in Peterson’s field, 1,000 across the Gros Ventra 
crossing of Snake River. There are large bands 
of elk on the Hoback and Buffalo Fork of 
Snake River. These elk and those on the high 
slopes of the mountains are looking well and 
strong. About a thousand elk went into Idaho 
early and most of these have been killed off 
for meat. About 6,000 were seen going south 
toward the Red Desert country. These will 
probably winter all right. Of the 25,000 being 
fed about fifty to sixty were dying daily when 
Mr. Sheffield left there the i8th of this month. 
When the feeding commenced the animals were 
dying much faster and w^ere very thin, the 
deaths occurring among calves and young elk. 
The State of Wyoming contributed $5,000 to 
pay for hay and the people are contributing. 
Probably this will carry the elk through the win¬ 
ter. Before the feeding commenced the elk had 
eaten all the willows and brush, chewing up the 
wood and, in some of the dead ones, this chewed 
willow wood seemed to have penetrated the 
membrane of the stomach and intestines. 
The winter has not been so hard in the north¬ 
ern part of the park. Of the animals here the 
loss has been from disease and overcrowding. I 
saw where green grass was starting to grow in 
sheltered places in Gardiner on the 23d of this 
month. If signs amount to anything we ought 
to have an early spring. Trout have begun to 
run up some of the smaller streams from the 
Yellowstone River. I saw one taken from a 
small stream that weighed 5 pounds 9 ounces 
and several small ones. There are some robins 
and other birds back from the south. Possibly 
the trout and birds do not know anything more 
about the weather and what it is going to be 
than the ground hog or goosebone. We all 
want an early spring and live in hopes we will 
get it. T. E. H. 
A Big Mountain Lion. 
Whiteriver, Ariz., March 7. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: James Hinton, cattle superin¬ 
tendent of the White Mountain reservation, 
killed last week a large mountain lion. Mr? 
Hinton was inspecting the cattle on Corrizo 
Creek about thirty miles west of Fort Apache, 
when his dogs struck the trail of this beast 
The lions have been killing the Indians’ stock, 
on Corrizo Creek for the past year or so. Mr. 
Hinton was sent out last week to see what 
could be done to stop the slaughter. His dogs 
struck the trail of the lion about 10 o’clock in 
the morning and in less than an hour were bay¬ 
ing the beast, which sought to escape by climb¬ 
ing a tree. Mr. Hinton was soon on the ground 
and brought the animal to the earth with his 
rifle. It measured 9 feet 2 inches and was about 
six years old. Shoshone. 
[Was it the lion in the ' flesh that was meas¬ 
ured or his skin? Even an eight-foot lion is a 
mon ster. — Editor. ] 
