Our road passed down along Hell-Gate river, leaving Deer Lodge City some
eight miles to the left. As one goes down, the country changes, and
occasional pines appear along the banks of the stream, and the landscape
becomes much more interesting. At one place, where a tiny tributary flows
in, a large community of beavers were building a dam. They were not at
all afraid of us, and so we leisurely observed the process, wishing to
settle the vexed question as to whether beavers do actually do
intelligent mason-work.
They had already sunk a great deal of brush, together with limbs of
trees, and were now filling this wicker-work in with earth and rocks
which they procured a little distance above on the opposite bank. A
beaver would run up, flatten his tail on the mud near the bank, then
another beaver would scrape the earth up and upon the tail of the first,
and pack it down. After he had his load complete, the carrier-beaver
would swim away rapidly; his tail, with the load of earth, floating on
the surface, the swift movement of the animal alone keeping it afloat.
The sagacious creature would invariably swim to the right place and dump
the load, and then return for another, the stream presenting a scene of
great activity, as several of these curious animal-masons were constantly
and swiftly passing and repassing each other with their heavy loads.
Others, the carpenters among them, were at work in the thicket opposite,
cutting brush. We saw many large trees which had been cut down by them.
The stumps looked as though some boy had chopped them down with a dull
axe. It is surprising to reflect upon the pertinacity of these creatures
which enables them to gnaw down such immense trees, and the wisdom with
which they calculate the direction in which the trees will fall.
It is said here that the beavers cut the limbs off from these trees and
then sever them into lengths of about three feet each, and after that
float them to the center of their pond, sink them to the bottom and
fasten them there, where they remain and are used as food during the
winter when the pond is frozen over. This is thought to be one of the
principal uses of the pond--to provide a pantry which will not freeze.
The pond furnishes a depth of water that is always still, and never
freezes to the bottom.
Although, after witnessing this almost human sagacity, we had many
compunctions, we concluded to shoot one fine animal for his skin. We shot
one through the head. His companions immediately disappeared; and before
we could secure our wounded beaver he also had dived beneath the waters
of their pond, and although we waited sometime in the vicinity, we failed
to discover him again. The inhabitants say it is nearly impossible to
kill a beaver with a rifle, and never, on any occasion does the trapper
shoot one.