Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/28

20 unceremoniously turned adrift by the parents to shift for themselves. If possible, they locate farther up the stream, but, if this is impracticable, select the nearest situation possessing the necessary requirements. It sometimes happens that there are so many dams on the same stream that the back-water from one sets into the next, and that in turn into the one preceding, and so on through the series. It is usually the case that a large colony in any one locality is derived from a single pair of beavers.

Occasionally solitary or "lone beavers" are met with by trappers; animals that do not erect dams or houses, but reside in holes and clefts in the banks which they have excavated, or which are the product of nature or of some of the burrowing tribes, as the otter. The cause of their abandoning the society of their kind is unknown. It may be an excess of that melancholic temperament that is assigned to the species; possibly, the hermit is the sole representative of an extirpated colony; perhaps a bachelor unfortunate in being unable to procure a helpmate; the Indian tribes represent them as pariahs or outcasts, doomed by their kind to solitude on account of shiftlessness or idleness. Certain it is, they are seldom in good condition, and their very mode of living precludes industry.

The trapping of beaver may be considered as an art in itself, as it demands no small expenditure of patience and perseverance to acquire the experience necessary to make it a lucrative calling. Once on the ground selected as the scene of his labors, the trapper follows the creeks and streams, keeping a sharp lookout for "sign." Every prostrate tree is examined to see if it be the work of the beaver; tracks are sought for in the mud and sand; and trails through grass and ferns submitted to careful inspection. The lay of the land having been thoroughly studied, and the presence, movements, haunts, and habits of the animal determined, traps are set at frequent intervals in those localities most likely to produce satisfactory results, and duly baited with "medicine." They are placed both on land and in the water; in the runways, at the landing-places, about the dwellings, and before the storehouses, and are visited daily. On land the old-fashioned "dead-fall" has the preference, as it breaks the animal's back without damaging the skin, while the steel trap in such locality only too frequently results in the escape of the quarry, though at the expense of some one of its members; for the beaver does not hesitate to exercise its sharp teeth in the performance of amputation in order to secure safety. That judgment is demanded in preparing a dead-fall is evident from the fact that it must be adjusted with such nicety that no animal larger than a beaver can pass beneath it, and yet be incapable of being disengaged by anything smaller, such as a mink or musk-rat; the drop-log, too, must be of dried peeled wood, lest it be pulled down by the very animals it is intended to capture, and carried off to their storehouse. The "medicine" used as bait, sometimes denominated