The Washington bee., 1901-11-23
A TREATY OF PEACE.
Made Between Two Colonies of
Beavers and Muskrats.
A Little story Which Shows That the
Animal World Contains DipIO-
mats Equal 10 TaIIeyFand
and bismarck.


Charles Nicholas, an Indian guide OF
Kineo, MoOsehead lake, 10 whom he
habits of birds and beasts are an open
book, tells the Boston Herald the fol-
lowing little story, which he declaresis
true, which is certainly good enough
10 be true:
Near the head of Spencer bay is an
extensive marsh, where in the sum-
mer time deer are wont TO feed and
frolic, where in the fall the lordly
moose comes from off the mountain to
mate, and where. at all seasons of the
year, nruskrats innumerable have
dwelt. Not so far away is a smaller
marsh, where for many years a colony
of beaver has lived in cosy houses
built close by the waters edge. These
two little communities never ex-
changed calls, but lived and prospered
in happy exclusion.
The going out of the ice from the
lake last spring was followed by an al
most unprecedented rise of water, and
the two marshes in Spencer bay, the
large one and the little one, were COM
pletely covered. Now. the musllrats
did not mind the flood a bit. Driven
from one hole, they sought another
further back, and when there werenT
any more holes these happy-go-lucky
vagrants set mp housekeeping in a.
huge pile of driftwood, never losing
meal or a wink of sleep.
But with the beaver it was different.
These industrious property owners
suffered severely, and when the wa
ters of Moosehead Lake at last re-
ceded the ruins Of the beavers lodges
went with them. The beavers did not
sit and sulk. neither did they for
moment think of building again on
the same old site. They sought high
er ground. where the floods of another
spring could not reach them, and so it
came about one fine morning when
the muskrats came down onto the
marsh to play they found the beaver
there before them.
It was a large marsh, as has been
stated before, but it was not large
War was at once declared, and the
war ended in the breaking up of the
muskfat colony and the scattering Of
the rats along the shores of Spencer
bay.
Two miles from the marsh and on
the farther side of the bay was a
clump of poplar trees, which the
beavers selected as the best material
available for their new homes. All
day and all night they sawed, until
finally they had floating in the lake
and compactIy RATED several hundred
logs just the right length and thick
ness for up-to-date beaver houses.
They could not even stir the raft
of logs from shore. TO say nothing Of
towing it two miles across Spencer
bay to the marsh.
Every beaver in the colony was
summoned to the task. Young and
old, big and little, weak and strong,
they pushed and pulled, but they
could not bulge that raft of timber.
Then the head of the beaver COLI
ony called the other beavers tOgeth-
er on the raft and laid before them
this remarkable proposition: If the
muskrats would lend a helping hand
and tow that raft up Spencer bay
they (the beayersl would permit
them to return to the big marsh,
where they might live without fear
of molestation. The rest of the beav-
ers agreed, and the muskrats, when
appealed TO, also agreed. And the,
following morning, before the waters
OF the bay roughed up, the deer and
the squirrels and the gulls beheld
with amazement beavers and musk
rats, shoulder to shoulder, pushing
d raft of logs before them up Spencer
| bay.
The houses are built and the beav-
| ers are in them. And all about ara
| muskrat holes, and muskrats in
| them, TOO. And beaver and rat, who
are at war everywhere else in north
ern Maine, are living together in
/ peace on the big marsh at the head
/ of Spencer bay.