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IN BEAVER WORLD
ENOS A. MILLS
BEAVER WORLD
In Beaver World
With Illustrations from Photographs
by the Author
Boston and New York
Houghton Mifflin Company
The Riverside Press Cambridge
Mdccccxiii
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY ENOS A. MILLS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published March 1913
To
J. Horace McFarland
Preface
This book is the result of beaver studies which cover a period oftwenty-seven years. During these years I have rambled through everyState in the Union and visited Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. In thecourse of these rambles notice was taken of trees, birds, flowers,glaciers, and bears, and studious attention devoted to the beaver. Noopportunity for beaver study was missed, and many a long journey wasmade for the purpose of investigating the conditions in live coloniesor in making measurements in the ruins of old ones. Theseinvestigations were made during every season of the year, and often aweek was spent in one colony. I have seen beaver at work scores oftimes, and on a few occasions dozens at one time.
Beaver have been my neighbors since I was a boy. At any time duringthe past twenty-five years I could go from my cabin on the slope ofLong’s Peak, Colorado, to a number of colonies within fifteenminutes. Studies were carried on in these near-by colonies in spring,summer, autumn, and winter.
One autumn my entire time was spent in making observations andwatching the activities of beaver in fourteen colonies. Sixty-fourdays in succession I visited these colonies, three of them twicedaily. These daily investigations enabled me to see the preparationsfor winter from beginning to end. They also enabled me to understanddetails which with infrequent visits I could not have even discovered.During this autumn I saw two houses built and a number of old onesrepaired and plastered. I also saw the digging of one canal, therepairing of a number of old dams, and the building of two new ones.In three of these colonies I tallied each day the additional number oftrees cut for h