The Wrangell sentinel., 1938-04-08


 done by the bear. Some people are quick to jump to conclusions before they have stopped to investigate and il is usually those who have had but a limited experience.
 Quite often trappers and hunters are accused of wrongs that they have never committed Occasionally, we hear some person protesting in loud voice, that some interruptions hunter or trapper has been dyna- hitting beaver dams or beaver houses in their efforts to capture the ani- mals.
 1 believe that I am quite safe in stating that in times past, I have covered about as much territory as most people and perhaps much more than a great many, and I wish to state here that never once have ever found convincing evidence that there had been any dynamite used on beaver dams or beaver houses. have found many dams broken out l and beaver houses torn open, how ever, upon close observation, found that this damage was not due to dynamite.
 It is quite possible that there has been a few times and places where dynamite has been used. However, they are very rare and I have never found such places. As matter of fact, there could be but little ac- complished in such a move and fur 1 thermore no trapper who happens to be a real trapper, would stoop so low as that and even though he should, he would undoubtedly soon find his great error, because in the first place. the beaver usually have number of dens under the banks in which they can easily hide from man even tho the water is drained from the pond. We should remem- Der that the beaver is a very wise animal and he is a much better en- gineer than a great many people
 All beaver houses have under water entrances. If you will walk up to or on any beaver house that contains beaver, no matter how careful you may be, this very wise little animal will be well aware Of the intrusion and if you will notice very closely you can observe the number of beav- CT by little streams of bubbles lead ing away under water as the beaver flee to deeper water. It should not be difficult to determine how dams and houses are broken open. Often dams are broken by high flood wa ters and you will notice that al- most all permanent dams that are thus broken, have a deep narrow channel cut through them and all i material used in that part of the dam has been washed away where it it had been dynamited, the material would be scattered in all directions The same applies to the beaver houses. If you will observe more closely the destroyed houses you will find that they have been dug open by bear and not scattered all over the landscape as with dyna- mite. What I mean by permanent dams are the dams which enclose the waters around their homes. There are often several other tenn porary dams above and below the main dam and it is not uncommon for those lesser dams to become broken by high water, while the main dam is very rugged and strongly constructed. Another thing that quite often happens is that when the beaver consumes all the available food that is quite near, they sometimes move to other and more bountiful food supplies Then we find, deserted ponds and homes and often when the repair work is stopped on the dams, the water breaks a passage through. Be it un- erstood that the beaver is a very industrious animal and he usually keeps his dams well repaired around his home.
 Perhaps you may not know that there is often considerable strife be- tween bear and wolves. A number of times I have found where wolves have killed and eaten black bear, usually they were small bear up to about two years old. However, last season far back inland. I found where there had evidently been staged one terrific battle between a large black bear and a number of wolves. Brush was torn down and the ground torn up as though therei might have been quite struggle. However, as usual, the bear was torn to shreds and eaten Broken bones and remnants of skin layl scattered around about, the broken bones demonstrating the tremen-