Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-21
Frank Brady Has a Number OF
the Animals.
THEY ARE GOOD NEIGHBORS
And Are the Hardest Kind of Workers
Trees Are Felled and Portions
Made Into Homes.

Among the guests in the city is Frank
Brady, the well known hunter and trap
per from the west fork of Rock Creek in
Granite county, who has without doubt
the largest beaver rancn in Montana in
which he takes a just pride. Mr.. Brady,
who has hunted among the mountains of
western Montana, settled on Rock creek
six or seven years ago. He does con-
siderable prospecting among the hills and
has been rewarded with several valuable
claims on upper Rock Greek and owns a
small interest in some of the Moose a
mines. He also raises some stock and
carries on farming. such as can be lone
at a high altitude among the mountains.
All who have visited his place pronounce
it a splendid mountain home with full and
plenty of the best to eat and is made
cheerful by the happy disposition of Mr..
Brady, who has for his neighbors more
thon 100 beavers who IA a village or
beaver dam upon his ranch. Speaking
with an Inter Mountain repo. ter last
night, Mr.. Brady said the beavers were
there when he settled at his present
mountain home. They will be there as
long as l live" said he. Il find them pleas
ant neighbors. attending to their own
business by doing their work well. No
one who has never seen a beaver dam can
form any idea Of how these little animals
can work, and the large dams they build
across the streams, out of wood they
gnaw down from standing timber The
beaver dams are situated on rather level
ground. They do most Of their work at
night and ave no fear Of water although
they do not live IN it all the time. These
dams are situated or a stream where the
gulch is not over 800 feet wide, but l have
found the gulch damned clear across in a
single night by these great workers. At
ter shutdown is the best tine to watch
them when all is calm. 1t is best TO get
a good point of view before shutdown and
wait until the beavers come out from the
o3ttom of the dams. They come up from
the bottom Of ponds so noiselessly that
not a ripple can be seen on the water.
The old beavers come up first, and
through some signal the families follow
afterwards, Some of them work in the
water and others on land. Trees on the
bank of the stream six inches in diameter
are cut down in a few hours, and fall into
the water where they are gnawed- into
short pieces and floated down to where
the dam is made. A tree that leans the
wrong a and canno be felled into the
water will not be touched. Trees a foot
in diameter have been cut down and util-
lied by the beavers. They also dig can
ais leading from the stream to standing
timber several yards away, when the
timber is cut down and utilized the same
as along the stream. The beaver is a
timid animal, and seldom ventures far
away from the water. All the wood they
work or nearly al! of it is peeled, the
beavers Subsistlng on bark. l have taken
q long stick of timber six inches in
diameter and placed it near the bank
or in the water. The next morning it would
have disappeared and could be found
tucked away in the dam. Beaver villages
continue up the river for a mile or more.
Each dam, and there are several of them,
seems to have it's own families. They do
not live in the water, although they spend
a great deal of t heir time in it. Houses
in which they 1--we are dug under the
banks of the stream and are clean and
dry. A stock of wood and bark is slowed
away for the winter, their operations be-
ing under the ice and frost, but they so
construct their houses that frost does not
reach them, and as the dams are some
times seven feet deep they have plenty of
room in the water under the ice"
Mr.. Brady does not hunt them himself
and does not permit any one else to. AZ
ter several years they have become quite
tame except when they are dam building.
They seem to have a secrecy about that
which they guard well.
"A great many visitors call at my place
during the summer and fall, said Mr..
Brady. land all are attracted by the beav-
err dams and the busy animals which
built them. 1t is interesting to watch
them, and although l have trapped for
years and watched them on my ranch for
hours, l can always find something new
about their life and habits"
A wEICOME RAIN