THE BUILDERS
When the tardy spring at last came to Beaver City, it was with a rush.
On the first day of March the snow was three feet deep in the woods
along the foothills, and two feet upon the smooth surface of the
beavers' lake. By the tenth of the month, one might search long to find
even a small snow-bank along the north side of the woods, or behind some
protecting boulder.
The wind, the rain, and the sun had all combined to bring about this
marvelous change.
For three days "it had rained suds," as the country people say, and then
a merry south wind had blown across the fog-covered snow-banks.
All the little streams hastening down the mountainside became raging
torrents, and the larger stream emptying into Beaver Lake, fairly went
mad.
In a single night it rose several feet, breaking up the ice, and tossing
it about as a child might his toys.
In some places the great gleaming cakes were shouldered out upon the
shore, and piled up in massive blockhouses. In other places they jammed,
making a very good ice dam across the stream. Then the water would set
back until it felt strong enough to cope with the ice, when it would
sweep the dam away and go thundering down-stream tossing the ice about
and sweeping all before it.
It was such a jam as this that dammed the water just above Beaver Lake,
holding it until the stream foamed and raged like an infuriated monster.
Then with a roar like thunder it burst through. Thousands of tons of
ice accumulated and piled up mountains high. The ice in the lake was
broken up like glass, and the mighty weight of all these contending
forces, pressed continually upon the beaver's strong dam.
For a while the sturdy old pines which were the backbone of the
structure held, but finally, creaking, groaning and snapping, they were
wrenched from their places, and with a great rush the beaver dam went
out. Then hundreds of grating, grinding, thundering cakes of ice
followed after the rushing waters.
When the ice jam struck the upper end of the island where the lodges
were, Shaggycoat knew that it was no place for him and his family, so
led a precipitate flight for terra firma. They were fortunate enough to
find an open place between the cakes of ice at the lower end of the
island, and all escaped into the alder bushes along the shore.
But they did not feel safe out in the open, with no house to flee to, so
as soon as the ice went out and the water fell, they went back to the
burrows.
When the spring freshet had passed, even the entrances to these
strongholds were left high and dry, and the broad area that had been
their lake looked very much as it had the first time Shaggycoat saw it.
It would never do to leave the female beavers and the youngsters in this
unprotected way while the males were off for their summer ramble, so
they constructed a brush and stone dam that should flow a small area,
and make the lodges again tenable. This was done by weighting down the
brush with heavy stones, letting the butts of the bushes point
down-stream. This structure was finally covered with sods and mud,
making a good temporary dam.
When Shaggycoat returned from his third summer of rambling in distant
lakes and streams he brought back three sturdy pairs of beaver, whom he
had invited to share his pleasant valley.
There was a definite plan in the wise head of our beaver, for the
furtherance of which he needed more help than his small colony now
afforded.
When the water had stood six feet deep in the bed of the stream, where
the old pines had been, it had flowed the lowlands from foothill to
foothill, and had stretched away up-stream until it was lost in the
distance. The picture of this silvern lake, sparkling and shimmering in
the bright spring sunlight, had captivated Shaggycoat, who had seen it
all from a knoll on shore. The old dam and the old lake, covering about
half this territory, would never do for him again. There must be a dam
built that would flow all this country, and he would be the builder.
When the water had fallen, he had gone over the meadows, noting by the
watermark upon trees and bushes just how his lake would extend, and how
deep the water would be in certain places. The flood had surveyed the
meadows for him, and all he had to do was to look about.
He had noticed when the water stood six feet deep in the channel, that
the width of the stream where the dam would be placed was about one
hundred and fifty feet, so this would be the length of his dam.
Although it was still early in the fall, no time was lost. The task
before them was seemingly almost impossible for such small creatures.
Ten eager wood-cutters were sent up-stream about a mile to a poplar
grove, where they began felling trees of from six to twelve inches in
diameter. These were cut into logs about three feet in length, and
tumbled into the stream. When it became choked or the sticks lodged
along the shore, two or three beavers were detailed to act as
river-men, so they pushed and pulled, swimming about among the logs
until the channel was free again. Several two-year-olds worked
industriously, gathering flood wood that had lodged upon the meadows,
after the spring freshet. This was also pushed into the water and
started down-stream.
On the site of the new dam, Shaggycoat and Brighteyes, with one other
old beaver, were working away with might and main, straightening out the
remains of the old dam, and getting the foundations of the new structure
ready.
Soon the poplar logs came floating down to the waiting builders. Here
they were seized by strong paws, and carried upon sturdy backs to their
place, in the cobwork dam.
For the first two feet, the dam would be built three tiers wide. This
would make the thickness at the base about ten feet. The cracks between
the logs were plastered up with sods and mud or if it seemed to call for
more weight stones were occasionally used.
Soon the logs and drift-wood began to come down faster than the three at
the dam could handle it for it must be laid nicely, and often one stick
was placed in several positions before it suited. It would never do to
have any of this building material go down-stream so two or three of the
cutting gang were shifted to the dam, and the work went on.
Whenever the logs in the stream grew scarce, some of the workers at the
dam went back to cutting logs. When the logs in the current jammed,
river-men were quickly hurried to loosen them. There was one accident
that marred the pleasure of dam-building and made the day memorable in
the colony. This did not stop the work, for these things happen in the
woods and the waters, where they get used to the unexpected.
One of Shaggycoat's first litter, who was now a sturdy beaver of three
summers, was felling a poplar larger than most of the trees which they
were using.
He was a famous wood-cutter, and wanted to distinguish himself by
cutting a large tree. He had worked away all night, and when the others
stopped at daylight his tree was not yet down so he stayed to finish it,
but, as the morning hours went by and he did not return to the lodge,
Shaggycoat went in search of him.
He found him lying at the stump of the fallen tree with his skull
crushed. He had evidently tried to take one more bite at the tottering
tree, when a prudent beaver would have stopped, and his head had been
crushed between the stump and the falling trunk.
This is an accident that sometimes occurs, although as a whole these
little wood-cutters are very cautious.
There was nothing to do in this case but leave the unfortunate victim
where he had fallen, but the tree was never used.
When the dam was two feet high, it was narrowed to two tiers of logs.
Then they could get on faster, but the higher it went, the longer it had
to be carried out at the ends. As the water set back it was much easier
to float the logs down.
The three tiers of logs at the bottom of the dam were occasionally tied
together by putting on a log ten feet long that would lie across all
three tiers. The cutting and placing of such a stick would take the
combined strength of four or five beavers.
When this long stick was ready, extra help was summoned and it was
rolled into the stream.
About the same tactics were used in placing it in the dam, but, when it
was once placed, it tied the three tiers of logs firmly together.
When the water rose too high above the dam, a small opening would be
made just large enough to keep it a little below the working line.
Thus, night after night they worked, felling trees, floating down logs,
and placing them, bringing mud and sods, and slowly moulding the whole
into a strong symmetrical structure.
Men would have required skilful engineers with levels and other
instruments and much figuring before the work had been begun, but not so
the beaver. The spring freshet had done the surveying to Shaggycoat's
entire satisfaction, and the small difficulties were overcome as fast as
they arose by their remarkable building genius.
I do not suppose the beaver knew the old maxim that "water seeks its
level," but they always acted as though they did, and were continually
profiting by the fact.
Before the first of December, the dam was completed, at least for that
year. This kind of a dam could be enlarged at any time, as the needs of
Beaver City grew.
Then the lodges had to be attended to. The new level of water had
flooded the lower story of the old lodge on the island, so the top was
ripped off, and a new floor laid and another story was added.
While the old lodges were being repaired, four new houses went up, so
that the colony now numbered seven lodges, while the lake stretched back
through the lowlands for more than a mile.
Along the newly formed shores, alder bushes now stood deep in the water.
When it had frozen over, and fresh bark could not longer be gotten,
these bushes would be remembered.
At last the great freeze came; the glass door was shut down over the
lake, and Jack Frost installed as doorkeeper until spring-time.
But what cared the beaver? Their lodges were now frozen like adamant,
and the new dam was equal to the task put upon it. There were cords of
poplar logs stored along the dam under the water, and thrust into the
mud about the lodges, so they could eat and sleep while the winter
months went by. They had done their work well, and this was their
reward.