Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-16

mile Of swamp and timber above It.
Neither Gray Wolf nor Kazan was
deeply interested in beavers. They al
20 moved out Of their element, along
with the fish and the otter and swift
winged birds.
So they turned into the north, not
knowing that nature had already
schemed that they four the dog, wolf
otter and beaver = should soon be en-
gagged in one of those merciless strug-
giles Of the wild which keep animal
/ life down to the survival OF the fittest
and whose tragic histories are kept
secret under the stars and the moon
and the winds that tell no tales.
For many years no man had come in
to this valley between the two ridges
to modest the beaver If "a Sarcee trap
per had followed down the nameless
creek and had caught the patriarch
and chief Of the colony, he would at
once have judged him to be very old
and his Indian tongue would have CIV
en- him a name. He would have called
him Broken Tooth, because one of the
four long teeth with which he felled
trees and built dams was broken off.
Six years before Broken Tooth had led
a few beavers of his own age down
the stream, and they had built their
first small dam and their first lodge.
The following April Broken Tooth's
mate had four little baby beavers, and
each of the other mothers In the col
ony increased the population by two
or three or four At the end of the
fourth year this first generate ton of chill
dren, had they followed the usual law
Of nature, would have mated and left
the colony to build dam and lodges
of their own. They mated, but did not
emigrate.
The next year the second generation
of children, now four years old, mated
but did not leave, so that in this early
summer of the sixth year the colony
was very much like great city that
had been long besieged by an enemy.
It numbered fifteen lodges and over
hundred beavers, not counting the
fourth babies which had been born dur
ing March and April. The dam had
been heightened until it was fully two
hundred yards in length. Water had
been made to flood large areas of
birch and poplar and tangled swamps
of tender willow and elder. Even with
this food was growing scarce and the
lodges were overcrowded. This was
because beavers are almost human in
their love for home. Broken Tooth's
lodge was fully nine feet long by seven
wide inside and there were now living
in 1t children and grandchildren to the
number of twenty-seven. For this
reason Broken Tooth was preparing to
! break the precedent of his tribe. When
! Kazan and Gray Wolf shifted careless
ly at the strong scents OF the beaver
city, Broken Tooth was marshaling his
family and two OF his sons and their
families, for the exodus.
AS yet Broken Tooth was the recog-
nized leader in the colony. No other
beaver had grown to his size and
strength. His thick body was fully
three feet long. He weighed at least
sixty pounds. His tail was fourteen
inches in length and five in width, and
on still night he could strike the
water a blow that could be heard a
Quarter of a mile away. His webbed
hindfeet were twice as large as his
mates and he was easily the swiftest
swimmer in the colony.
Following the afternoon when Gray
Wolf and Kazan struck into the north
came the clear still night when Broken
Tooth climbed to the top of the dam,
shook himself, and looked down to see
that this army was behind him. The
starlit water of the big pond rippled
and flashed with the movement of
many bodies. A few Of the older
beavers clambered up after Broken
Tooth and the old patriarch plunged
down into the narrow stream on the
other side of the dam. Now the shin.
ing silken bodies Of the emigrants fol-
lowed him in the starlight. In ones
and twoes and threes they climbed
over the dam and with them went
dozen children born three months be-
fore. Easily and swiftly they began
the Journey down stream, the young
sters swimming furiously to keep up
with their parents. In all they num-
bered forty. Broken Tooth swan well
in the lead with his older workers and
battlers behind him. In the rear fol.
lowed mothers and children.
All of that night the journey contin'
ued. The otter, their deadliest enemy
-deadlier even than man - hid him.
self in thick clump of willows as they
passed. Nature. which sometimes sees
beyond the vision of man, had made
him the enemy of these creatures that
we're passing his hiding place in the
night. A fish feeder, he was born to
be conseryer as we'll as destroyer
of the creatures on which he fed. Per-
hans nature fold him that too MANY