University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1915-09-03

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 9TH
er 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 a still night he could strike the wa
ter blow that could be heard a quar-
ter of mile away. His webbed hird-
feet were twice as large as his mates
and he was easily the swiftest swim
mer In the colony.
Following the afternoon when GRAY
Wolf and KaZan struck into the north
came the clear still night when Brok-
en- Tooth climbed to the top of the
dam, shook himself, and looked down
to see that his army was behind him.
The starlit water of the big pond rip
pied 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 shining silken bodies of the emf
grants followed him in the starlight
In ones and twos and threes they
climbed over the dam and with them
went a dozen children born three
months before. Easily and swiftly
they began the journey downstream,
the youngsters swimming furiously to
keep up with their parents. In all
they numbered forty. Broken Tooth
swan well in the lead, with his older
workers and battlers behind him. In
the rear followed mothers and chill
dren.
All of that night the journey con-
tinued The otter, their deadliest en-
emy-deadlier even than man-hi6
himself in a thick clump Of willows
as they passed. Nature, which some
times sees beyond the vision of man,
had made him the enemy of these
creatures that were passing his hid
ing-place in the night A fish-feeder.
he was born to be conserver as well
as a destroyer of the creatures on
which he fed. Perhaps nature told
him that too many beaver dams stop
ped the run of spawning fish and that
where there were many beavers there
were always few fish. Maybe he
reasoned as to why fish-hunting was
poor and he went hungry. So. unable
to cope singly with whole tribes of his
enemies, he worked to destroy their
dams. How this, in turn, destroyed
the beavers will be seen in the feud
in which nature had already schemei
that he should play a part with Ka-
zan and Gray Wolf.
A dozen times during this night
Broken Tooth halted to investigate the
food supplies along the banks. But
in the two or three places where he
found plenty of the bark on which
they lived it would have been difficult
to have constructed dam. His won
derful engineering instincts rose even
above food instincts And when each
time he moved onward. no beaver
questioned his judgment by remaining
behind. In the early dawn they crossed
the burn and came 10 the edge of the
swamp domain of Kazan and Gray
Wolf By right of discovery and pos
session that swamp belonged to the
dog and the wolf. In every part of
it they had left their mark of owner
ship. But Broken Tooth was a crea-
ture of the water and the scent of his |
tribe was not keen He led on, trav-
cling more slowly when they entered |
the timber Just below the windfall |
home of Kazan and Gray Wolf he halt
ed, and clambering ashore balanced |
himself upright on his webbed hind |
feet and broad four-pound tail. Ere |
he had found ideal conditions. A dam |
could be constructed easily across the
narrow stream, and the water could be |
made to flood a big supply of poplar, |
birch, willow and alder. Also the |
place was sheltered by heavy timber,
so that the winters would be warm.
Broken Tooth quickly gave his fol-
lowers to understand that this was to
be their new home. On both sides |
of the stream they swarmed into the |
nearby timber The babies began |
at once to nibble hungrily at the ten
der bark of willow and alder. The |
older ones. every one Of them now |
working engineer, investigated ex-
citedly. breakfasting by nibbling off a