Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-01-22
DIPLOMATIC BEAVERS.
They Ceased War on Muskrats Because
of Valuable Aid.

They Ceased War on Muskrats Because
of Valuable Aid.
Charles Nicholas, an Indian guide
of Kineo, Moosehead lake, to whom the
habits of bird and beast are an open
book, tells the following little story
which he declares is true, which is
certainly good enough to be true.
Near the head of Spencer bay is an
extensive marsh, where in the summer
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
muskrats innumerable have dwelt. Not
SO far away is smaller marsh, where,
for many years, colony of beaver has
lived in cosey houses built close by
the waters edge. These two little
communities never exchanged calls,
but lived and prospered in happy ex-
clusion.
The going out of the ice from the
lake last spring was followed by an
almost unprecedented rise of water,
and the two marshes in Spencer bay,
the large one and the little one, were
completely covered. Now, the musk
rats did not mind the flood bit Driv-
en- from one hole, they sought another
further back, and when there weren't
any more holes these happy go-lucky
vagrants set up housekeeping in a
huge pile of driftwood, never losing
meal or wink of sleep.
But with the beaver it was different.
These industrious property owners suf-
fered severely, and when the waters
of Moosehead lake at last receded 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 higher 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.
1t was large marsh, as has been
stated before, but it was not large
enough for both muskrat and beaver.
War was at once declared, and the war
ended in the breaking up of the musk
rat 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 beaver
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 compactly
RATED several hundred logs just the
right length and thickness for up-to-
date beaver houses. And then the
troubles of these busy but unscrupu-
lous little builders began.
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 sum-
moned 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 colony
called the other beavers together on
the raft and laid before them this re-
markable proposition: If the musk
rats would lend helping hand and
tow that raft up Spencer bay, they
(the beaver) would permit them to re-
turn to the big marsh, where they
might live without fear of molesta-
tion. The rest of the beavers agreed,
and the muskrats, when appealed to,
also agreed. And the following morn
ing, before the waters of the bay
roughed up, the deer and the squirrels
and the gulls beheld with amazement
beavers and muskrats, shoulder to
shoulder, pushing a raft of logs before
them up Spencer bay.
The houses are built and the beaver
are in them. And all about are musk
rats holes, and muskrats in them, too.
And beaver and rat, who are at war
everywhere else in northern Maine, are
living together in peace on the big
marsh at the head of Spencer bay
Boston Herald.