The Portland daily press., 1898-06-29
A SNOW WHITE BEAVER
And the y.tua TO Montana OattIemen of
the Dams Built by the Beavers.


nT ha1;ave am the only white person
that ever trapped or kltieo an ADULT abb
no beaver. - said Thomas dllroy, an ex-
ranohman of Montana. 'Albino beavers
are the rarest of animals, and the only
snec1mens ever saw besides the one I
framed were two cubs captured by an In,
dian on Wind river more than thirty
wears AGO. There were four young beavers
in the nest this Indian secured, and two
of them were black. The mother of the
litter was captured with them, and she
was black. There is another very rare
beaver in the Northwest region This is
the golden beaver, and bears the choicest
of all fur. The golden beaver is almost as
rare as the white beaver, the albino being
merely a freak of nature, while the gold
en- beaver is species. This beaver was
not known in this country until about
1880, when the first specimen was dis |
covered in the Milk river region. Up to
that time Siberia was suppos ed to be the
animals only habitat.
81 wasn't in the trapping business
when I caught the albino beaver, or per-
| haps l wouldn't have had the cham to
| bag him and the thirty four others got
along with him. had heard good
many wonderful stories about how beay-
ers chopped down trees, and being any
| ious to see how far from the truth some
| of these stories were, / found where
beavers were at work in piece of cedar
woods through which branch of the
Wind river flowed. + chose bright
moonlight night to watch the beavers at
their tree chopping. l hid myself before
night fall near the spot. Soon after night
fall beaver came out of the water, went
straight to gond-sized cedar tree, and
| began work upon it with his teeth with
| out moments delay. Willis he was at
work another beaver appeared from the
| river and as he drew himself out of thu
water to the bank where the moon shone
full upon him I saw that he was as
white as snow. The white beaver select
ed q tree and went vigorously to work
telling it. ] don't believe a woodchopper
with his axe could have felled those trees
any quicker tnan those two beavers did
with their chisel-like teeth.
"Long before I had como into personal
| contact with the beaver I had read in the
purpose of making swimming and fish,
| ing pond. After I began taking an in
terest in beavers I found that the book
explanation was as ridiculous as it was
| lacking in fact. found that the beaver
docs not eat fish or flesh of any kind, but
barks, which are plentiful during the
summer. but cease to provide nutritious
or hunger -allaying Qualitiesi when the
cold season is at hand. So the beaver
builds dams to provide against the pinch
of hunger during the winter. The in
stinot Of the Beaver teaches him that
| these substances submerged in water
| will a
winter long, SO be selects spot where
| this food grows abundant near the shores
| and dams the stream so that thu water
will be flooded back over the young will
lows and aspens and cottonwoods and
held there Thus the bark on them is
kept soft, juicy and tender, and the beav
or has his store of nutritious food to draw
upon all winter long. If there Is no
growth of such woods convenient for
overlooking, the beaver outs down will
lows, cottonwoods irresponsible cotton
| wood being the fayorite-foats them to
them there below the freezing depth, and
| they keep as fresh and tender as if they
were growing on the banks and
quickened by the spring sunshine and
rains.
/ ''As to the colony of beavers that first
attracted my attention, I watched it at
| its dam building, in the course of which
the beavers chopped down good many
cedar trees. That was all very interest
| ing and Instructive, but 1t wasn't profit
able to the owner of the timber, whose
agent l was, and, as my chief duty was
the quest of timber thieves, concluded
| that here were some we'll worth looking
colony without delay. By inquiry among
the traprers l learned something about
| how they went to work to trap beavers
and l set five traps in that colony's pond.
l caught beaver in every trap seven
consecutive nights, and the last beaver +
caught was the big white one. I sold the
alDino to an English tourist for $40 in
gold.
fThe share took in the work of de-
populating1the Northwest of the beaver
after that was considerable, but when I
got into the cattle business I was sorry,
and would gladly have given back every
dollar l received for their pelts. and 1t
would have made big sum, ii could
have put the beavers back again, for
found that, although the beaver wasn't
worth as much as fat steer in money,
there wasn't cattleman in Montana
that wouldn't give up the best steer in
his herd to save the life of beaver any
day IN the year, just because the beavers
were dam builders. That wonderful in
stinct of the beaver di1n't interest the
ranohmen little bit, nor had they my
sentiment in their anxiety to protect the
beaver But water was constant neces-
sity on the cattle trails, in the dry eli
mate Of Montana especially, where the
streams and water holes are few .and far
between. There were more beavers in
Montana-and there are yet perhaps-than
anywhere else in the United States. By
building their dams wherever they might
they caused the water supply to be
boarded as 1t could be in no other way
That just suited the cattlemen, and to
this day, while any other game or fur
bearing animal may be exterminated
without dissenting voice from them,
and protection of the rsnchmen."