The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1907-04-11


foot Indian agency in northern Mon
tanA taking preparations to start
into tie mountains on q hunting trip.
About the reservation were many Old
ac7uaintances and friends, Indians.
halibrccds and whites. who had been
in tho West for thirty or forty years
ami were familiar vita old-time con-
d!tions. II has always been a pleas
,lro to me to talk to such people
men whose powers of observation
were highly trained, whose experience
had been long and whose memories
were good. Most of the things they
said deserved careful attention, many
OF them were worth setting down in
q notebook.
One afternoon I was sitting alone
in front of the traders store, when
old Bill Weaver, the best trapper Of
all that northern country, came
around the corner of the building,
and walked up to me, sat down and
said:
when are you going to start
out?"
II do not know just when" I re-
piled, but certainly before long.
am waiting to sec the clouds lift off
the mountains. / don't care to 20
into them in rain or snow, If can
help it. We have had weather enoug..
there, anyhow"
The old man sat silent for a little
while, and then, reaching out a stub
by forefnger, he touched my knee
and said, George, don't you CO."
"Why not?" asked.
Let the mountains go this year
and come with me. l will tell you
why. I have found a place where
there is a whole lot of beaver. It's
only little stream, but they are
thick, and If you and I go there /
reckon we can catch twenty-five or
thirty in two or three weeks. Come
with me and we will have a nice
little spell of trapping and will make
little money"
The proposition was an attractive
one. ! should have enjoyed Viewers
company in visit to q place where
beaver were undisturbed. the trap
L
ised friends that | would go with
them to the mountains and it was
too late to change my plans. So
went into the high hills and Beaver
Bill went off to trap. Four weeks
later when ] returned I found that he
had come in some time before with
forty-two beaver and about seventy
ell I'M, ~
ward for his labor.
For a number of years Weaver
used to go off every season to this
trapping ground, whose secret he
carefully guarded. and come back in
short time with a considerable
catch of fur. But at last some change
swept Weaver out of the country and
have not seen him for many years.
In the autumn of 1906 / crossed
the little stream which, until Weaver
had discovered it, had perhaps never
been trapped. 1t lies in a rough
country at q little distance out from
the mountains, hidden at the bottom
of narrow valley, whose steep walls
rise hundreds of feet on either side.
little valleys in the West where there
is water, settlers house is there
and his cattle browse on the steep
hillsides, while from the narrow but
level stream valley he cuts hay
enough to insure them against the
dangers of winter. One would sup
pose that the beaver would long ago
have disappeared, but this is just
what they have not done.
At close intervals along the little
stream stand dams kept constantly in
repair by the beaver, the water being
held back so that it stands only about
six inches below the level of the
stream bottom. There may be a diff
ference of foot or foot and half
in the height of the water above and
below any one of the dams, but in
any case it is close to the lands level.
The actual bed of the stream, how
ever, lies five or six feet below the
level of the soil in the bottom, and
in every pool there is water deep
enough to swim horse, / know,
because tried to find place to ride
across 1t without going down to the