This book is the result of beaver studies which cover a period of
twenty-seven years. During these years I have rambled through every
State in the Union and visited Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. In the
course of these rambles notice was taken of trees, birds, flowers,
glaciers, and bears, and studious attention devoted to the beaver. No
opportunity for beaver study was missed, and many a long journey was
made for the purpose of investigating the conditions in live colonies
or in making measurements in the ruins of old ones. These
investigations were made during every season of the year, and often a
week was spent in one colony. I have seen beaver at work scores of
times, and on a few occasions dozens at one time.
Beaver have been my neighbors since I was a boy. At any time during
the past twenty-five years I could go from my cabin on the slope of
Long's Peak, Colorado, to a number of colonies within fifteen
minutes. 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 and
watching the activities of beaver in fourteen colonies. Sixty-four
days in succession I visited these colonies, three of them twice
daily. These daily investigations enabled me to see the preparations
for winter from beginning to end. They also enabled me to understand
details which with infrequent visits I could not have even discovered.
During this autumn I saw two houses built and a number of old ones
repaired and plastered. I also saw the digging of one canal, the
repairing 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 of
trees cut for harvest. I saw many trees felled, and noted the manner
in which they were moved by land and floated by water.
The greater number of the papers in this book were written especially
for it. Parts of the others have been used in my books _Wild Life on
the Rockies_ and _The Spell of the Rockies_. "The Beaver's
Engineering" appeared in the _Saturday Evening Post_, and I am
indebted to _McClure's_ for permission to use "Beaver Pioneers."
Beaver works are of economical and educational value besides adding a
charm to the wilds. The beaver is a persistent practicer of
conservation and should not perish from the hills and mountains of our
land. Altogether the beaver has so many interesting ways, is so
useful, skillful, practical, and picturesque that his life and his
deeds deserve a larger place in literature and in our hearts.