The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-28
THE MOUNTAIN BEAVER.
HIS Intelligence Is by No Means Exng
geratpd.


HIS Intelligence Is by No Means Exng-
gerated.
No animal is at more pains TO have dry
place to live in. and none live on coarser
fare or show so much patience and indus
try. His sagacty and intelligence are pro-
verbal. An example came under my
notice while trout fishing on mountain
stream few years ago. A young
man noticed fresh beaver dam near
the house and coaXed Inc to help him
trap beaver. The dam was of mud and
alder brush and ran across the creek, some
five yards wide ut that point, with perpen-
dicuar banks and bordered ON each side
with dry land used as pasture land We
broke out one end of the dam by an hours
hard work. and set our trap, using large
green alder bush for stake, which we
forced into the mud out in the pond as far
as the chain would permit
Tue peXt morning we found that the
break in the dam had been carefully re-
paired, and our trap with the stake was
woven into the very bottom of the break.
The repairs were so well done that it took
us about an hour to recover the trap, and
we reset it in another place. The same
succession. On the sixth night the
dam was repaired as usual, but about the
middle of the dam was Semi-circular
groove cut through the well-packed bushes
and mud forming the top, true and smooth
as no man could do it, and lowering the
water in the pond some six or eight inches.
OF course, by so much it relieved the pres
sure on the dam. The beaver concluded
the dam was too high for the strength of
his material Though the young man
and myself knew the fact to he de-
cidedly otherwisel and he made the pres
sure less in the safest way The trap cut
no figure in the experiment beyond its be-
ing attached TO a fine green alder bush, Just
what the beaver needed to repair with, and
so he dug it up every night and dragged it
with the trap to the break and it was the
first ana easiest material he could get hold
of 10 help make his repairs; the other
bushes which he needed to cut for repairs
to the dam grew at quite distance from
the creek.
Above the dam on the creek are meadows,
and gentleman in hunting grouse was
walking over them, and was startled at the
sight of an animal coming toward hi m In q
path leading through the tall grass that ap-
peared like little old man. On better view
he concluded it was not human and shot it.
The animal turned out to be very old, gray
bearded beaver, which had lost both of his
fore feet by steel traps, and was now walking
on bis hind feet and carrying few sticks in
his stumps of arms, and evidently trying to
provide for his future subsistence. Intelli-
gent as beavers are, If they could be domes-
tcated no animal would attract greater in
terest. The instinct for dam-building
might make him troublesome; bnt the OBJ
Ject of that labor is to protect the entrance
to his home from his enemies and to pro-
vide 4 place for his winters supply of food,
where he can use it in safety and below the
reach of ice. When the necessity no
longer exists for his protection, in a gener-
alton or two, il is likely there would no
longer be the desire for dam building. For
est and Stream.