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The 
 Chief Engineer 
 
 By 
 HENRY ABBOTT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1920 
 
Copyright 1920 
 
 By 
 HENRY ABBOTT 
 
The Chief Engineer Uib 
 & 
 
 Henry Abbott 
 
 rwas a dark night in July very 
 dark. There was no moon and 
 clouds hid the stars. We were 
 sitting by the camp fire. Bige had just 
 kicked the burning logs together so that 
 a shower of sparks shot straight up to- 
 ward the tree-tops, indicating that there 
 was no wind, when he said, "If you 
 want to make that picture of deer this 
 is just the kind of a night to go for it. 
 You must have it dark so you can get 
 close enough to get a good photograph. 
 Also, this is just the kind of weather 
 when we are likely to find deer feeding 
 near the mouth of the river." 
 
 So with camera and flash-light appar- 
 atus I climbed into the bow end of our 
 light-weight cedar boat, while Bige with 
 paddle sat in the stern. We aimed 
 toward the mouth of the river about 
 half of a mile from camp and across 
 
 3 
 
 
The Chief Engineer 
 
the pond. No land-marks were visible, 
 so we steered by "dead reckoning." 
 Bige was feathering his paddle, Indian 
 fashion without lifting it out of the 
 water, so we silently proceeded, making 
 no ripple on the surface and yet, at 
 first, rather swiftly. 
 
 A few minutes later, the bow of the 
 boat struck some yielding obstacle. 
 My first thought was that we had hit 
 a mossy, overhanging bank on the oppo- 
 site shore of the pond. In times of 
 stress, thoughts follow each other in 
 rapid succession. My second thought 
 was that the opposite shore was not 
 mossy and overhanging, but rocky; 
 third, that we had not been out long 
 enough to get across; and fourth that 
 we must have hit some animal who was 
 swimming. But things were happening 
 now, more rapidly than thoughts, and 
 very much quicker than the time re- 
 quired to tell about them ; and this latter 
 thought was confirmed long before it was 
 completely formulated. 
 
 5 
 
Instantly, after we struck, a violent 
 commotion occurred under the bow of 
 the boat, water splashed in my face, 
 there was the sound of scratching, gnaw- 
 ing and splintering wood, then a paw 
 appeared on the gunwale beside me, the 
 boat rocked and I yelled to Bige, "He 
 is climbing aboard!!" while I lifted the 
 camera intending to brain this indis- 
 tinct shape as soon as I could see its 
 head. This was immediately followed 
 by the release of the weight on the side 
 of the boat, its rocking in the opposite 
 direction, a resounding slap on the water 
 which threw a shower of spray over my 
 head, in my eyes and ears. Then si- 
 lence. 
 
 "Must have hit a muskrat," said 
 Bige. 
 
 "More like a collie dog or a young 
 bear," said I. "He surely would have 
 swamped the boat if you had not slapped 
 the water with the paddle, and I would 
 have smashed my camera over his head." 
 
 "I didn't slap anything with the pad- 
 6 
 
a 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
die. I wouldn't spoil your fun that 
 way. Your friend in the water made 
 all the noise. Wonder what he was," 
 said Bige. 
 
 'Well, it was no measly muskrat, 
 I'll stake my reputation and experience 
 on that," said I. 
 
 There ended our photographing opera- 
 tions for that occasion, since after such 
 a racket no deer could be expected to 
 show himself at the pond, so we turned 
 back to camp. On the way we discussed 
 the possible identity of the animal with 
 whom we had just been in collision, 
 and who had upset our plans for the 
 evening. 
 
 Most wild animals swim; some for 
 pleasure, others only when it cannot be 
 avoided. In the darkness we failed to 
 get a clear idea of the size or shape of 
 this fellow, we could only judge by the 
 jolt our boat got, and the commotion he 
 made in the water. We canvassed the 
 possibility of its being a coon, a fox, an 
 otter, a porcupine, a marten, a lynx or 
 
 8 
 
a wolf; but there was something about 
 the habits of each that would not fit the 
 incident and we went to bed with the 
 problem still unsolved. 
 
 After breakfast the following morn- 
 ing, we went down to the shore and 
 examined our boat. The thin part of 
 the prow above the water line had been 
 bitten through and a splinter a half- 
 inch thick and eight inches long had 
 been torn out. The marks of very sharp 
 clean cutting teeth plainly showed at 
 the upper end of the break. Short 
 brown hairs were sticking to the rough 
 edges of the bow, and on the keel for a 
 space of eighteen inches back of the 
 bow. 
 
 "That fellow must have thought a 
 tree fell on him," said Bige. The boat, 
 we found did not leak, so we went fish- 
 ing. Passing a small island about a mile 
 up the pond, we noticed a young green 
 poplar tree had fallen into the water. 
 There had been no wind storm for 
 months and we did not know of any 
 
 9 
 
other campers on the pond so we won- 
 dered who could have cut down that 
 poplar, and why? We went ashore to 
 investigate. The tree we found was 
 about four inches in diameter at the butt 
 and it had not been chopped, but had 
 been gnawed off. The ground about 
 the stump was strewn with chips and 
 one branch had been gnawed off and 
 carried away. The tooth marks on the 
 stump were like those on the bow of our 
 boat, and looked as if made by a curved 
 chisel about a quarter inch wide. The 
 chips were from two to four inches long 
 and were clean cut on each end and split 
 out as if they had come from a wood 
 chopper's axe. 
 
 Bige said, "Gosh! that looks like the 
 work of beaver, but there are no beaver 
 in these woods, haven't been any here 
 for sixty years." 
 
 A few minutes later we found the 
 branch which had been cut from the 
 fallen poplar floating on the water near 
 shore opposite the island. The bark 
 
 10 
 
had been stripped from it down to the 
 smallest twig and it appeared white and 
 conspicuous when seen from a distance 
 of fifty yards. 
 
 Proceeding on our way toward the 
 fishing ground, we presently saw the 
 head of some animal above the surface. 
 It was swimming toward us and waves 
 were spreading out fan wise in its wake, 
 on the smooth surface of the pond. 
 Instantly we became motionless and 
 watched its approach. When within 
 fifteen or twenty yards of our boat it 
 stopped, eyeing us curiously, then swung 
 to the right and again to the left, appar- 
 ently for the purpose of viewing us from 
 different angles. Its back appearing 
 above the surface was covered with a 
 reddish brown fur with long grey hairs 
 showing at intervals. There was a large 
 white spot on the top of his head (this 
 we later learned was not a character- 
 istic marking, a white spot being quite 
 unusual on animals of this family, and 
 it enabled us to recognize our first 
 
 11 
 
acquaintance from among the many 
 members of his tribe whom we subse- 
 quently met.) Two large, projecting 
 and curving cutting teeth on the upper 
 and two on the lower jaw appeared when 
 he opened his mouth. There were also 
 eight molars on each jaw. His eyes 
 were inconspicuous and his ears were 
 small but he had a broad, flat tail, 
 shaped somewhat like the blade of a 
 paddle. 
 
 Having, apparently, decided that it 
 would be unwise to cultivate a closer 
 acquaintance with two men in a boat, 
 our swimmer humped his back, lifted 
 high his broad tail and with it struck 
 the water a powerful slap, the noise of 
 which reverberated from "Mud Pond 
 Mountain to East Inlet Holler" and it 
 threw a shower of water and spray eight 
 or ten feet into the air, looking like some 
 of the war pictures of exploding mines. 
 
 The animal disappeared under water 
 but a long line of air bubbles coming to 
 the surface marked his progress under 
 
 12 
 
! 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
water. These we followed about two 
 hundred yards to where they ended at 
 the opposite shore. A closer examina- 
 tion disclosed the entrance, about two 
 feet under the surface, of a burrow which 
 seemed to rise under the high bank. 
 
 "Well," said Bige, "that's the fellow 
 who met up with our boat last night. 
 He's a beaver all right, but where in 
 tunket did he come from?" 
 
 The incidents here related occurred 
 while we were camping at Cherry Pond, 
 seventeen years ago. We had learned 
 in many conversations with Mitchell 
 Sabattis (an Indian who died at a very 
 advanced age a few years ago, and who 
 was the oldest inhabitant of this region), 
 about the Indians trapping beaver here, 
 and how they sold hundreds of skins to 
 John Jacob Astor, who became rich 
 dealing in furs which he purchased 
 throughout the northern forests and in 
 Canada. 
 
 Sabattis explained that it was the 
 practice of the Indians to take only 
 
 14 
 
a few animals from each colony, when 
 they would move their traps to another 
 dam. Thus there were always enough 
 beaver left for breeding and they in- 
 creased rapidly. But the white trappers, 
 when they came, caught every beaver 
 and took every skin, big and little, with 
 the result that in a few years' time, 
 beaver had been exterminated from the 
 Adirondack forests and none ever came 
 in again. 
 
 A few days after our encounter with 
 the animal as above related, we learned, 
 while making inquiries, that during the 
 previous season the Conservation Com- 
 mission of the State had " plan ted" a 
 family of six beavers on one of the 
 streams emptying into Raquette Lake, 
 and we concluded that the individual 
 we met was an emigrant from that 
 colony. 
 
 Upon studying the government map, 
 we figured that if he followed a chain of 
 lakes and ponds through the connecting 
 streams, he must have traveled thirty- 
 
 15 
 
five miles. If he had come over the 
 mountain and several foothills in a 
 straight line, which seemed unlikely, he 
 might have shortened his trip to about 
 twenty miles. 
 
 We saw the white headed beaver many 
 times during our visits to the pond that 
 summer, sometimes on shore, or sitting 
 on the trunk of a poplar or birch tree 
 which he had felled near the water. His 
 body was about thirty inches long, tail 
 ten inches long and six inches wide, 
 hind feet webbed, like those of a goose, 
 fore feet resembled the hands of a child 
 but with long, sharp toe nails. He might 
 have weighed forty or fifty pounds. He 
 was a slow and clumsy traveler on land 
 but a very efficient citizen in the water. 
 He could dive and remain under water 
 from eight to ten minutes without ap- 
 parent inconvenience. Swimming, he 
 could tow a log twice his own weight and 
 against the current when necessary. 
 
 Early in September, his wife arrived. 
 Whether the "old man" went after her, 
 
 16 
 
whether he sent a wireless message or 
 a telepathic command, or whether the 
 date of her coming had been arranged 
 between them before he left home, we 
 never knew. It seems quite probable 
 that she just naturally knew that it was 
 high time for her husband to stop ex- 
 ploring and loafing and to get busy 
 building a house and storing a supply of 
 food for the winter, so she arrived. 
 
 She would have no difficulty in fol- 
 lowing his trail, which after the habit 
 of his kind, he doubtless marked at more 
 or less frequent intervals by scooping up 
 from the bottom of the pond or stream 
 a double handful of soft mud, which he 
 would place on the shore, shape it up 
 into a nice round mudpie and deposit 
 in its center a few drops of "Castoreum." 
 This material has a peculiar, pungent 
 and individual odor easily recongized 
 by members of a beaver family. The 
 Indians also highly prized the castoreum 
 of the beaver for its supposed medicinal 
 properties. 
 
 17 
 
Immediately on the arrival of the 
 female beaver the two began work 
 building a house. This was placed on 
 a point of land between the mouth of 
 the river and a shallow bay or slough. 
 The base of the house was about a foot 
 above the normal level of the pond. 
 Straight sticks and crooked branches 
 two to four inches in diameter and about 
 five feet long were placed on the ground 
 for a foundation and were arranged in 
 a circle like the spokes of a wheel. On 
 these were piled other sticks, brush, 
 stones, sod and mud, which latter was 
 used as cement or mortar to bind the 
 other materials together. An open 
 space was left in the center, which grew 
 smaller in diameter as the walls were 
 carried up and was finally arched over. 
 The house when finished was fourteen 
 feet in diameter at the base; it was cone 
 shaped and six feet high. It had no 
 door or entrance visible on the surface; 
 but as the side walls were being carried 
 up one of the beavers dug a round hole 
 18 
 
I 
 
 ffl 
 
twelve inches in diameter, straight down 
 from the center of the house about 
 eighteen inches, when it was curved 
 toward the river and opened out in the 
 bottom. Then he dug a second entrance, 
 close to the first one, but this curved 
 toward the slough. The water there 
 being shallow, a ditch or canal dug in 
 the bottom carried the outer end of the 
 burrow down about three feet below 
 the surface and a hundred feet or more 
 out to deep water. The mud procured 
 in digging the entrance and exit was 
 used in plastering the walls of the house. 
 No mud was used on the ventilating 
 flue, which was a space about a foot in 
 diameter in the center of the cone. This 
 was thoroughly protected from outside 
 enemies by two feet in thickness of 
 criss-crossed sticks, but air could freely 
 pass through the interstices. 
 
 The house building proceeded rapidly, 
 much of the work being done at night, 
 but we were able to inspect the building 
 daily, and several times we found the 
 
 20 
 
beavers working in the daytime. Always 
 the white crowned beaver was the leader 
 and seemed to be directing the work of 
 the other. When the structure was 
 completed it proved to be an excellent 
 example of reinforced concrete work of 
 a most substantial character. Never- 
 theless, six weeks later, just before 
 freezing weather started, a final coating 
 of mud three inches thick was plastered 
 over the entire outside surface of the 
 house. When frozen, this armor plate 
 would furnish complete protection to 
 the furry inhabitants against their most 
 ferocious enemies during the long and 
 hungry months of winter. 
 
 Some years later, a beaver house, the 
 side of which had been cut away, af- 
 forded an opportunity for us to learn 
 how our white-headed friend finished 
 the inside of his castle. The rough pro- 
 jecting inner ends of sticks, branches 
 and brush were gnawed off making a 
 roomy, smooth-walled, dome ceilinged 
 space divided into two parts. The 
 
 21 
 
first, or ground floor, contained the 
 openings for entrance and exit. It also 
 was used as a drying room; for no self- 
 respecting beaver would ever permit 
 himself, his family or guests to go to 
 bed in wet clothes. Coming in from 
 swimming in the pond or river he must 
 sit in the vestibule until his wet fur is 
 thoroughly dry before he climbs into 
 the bunk. 
 
 The drying floor also serves the pur- 
 pose of a dining room in winter, when 
 the pond is covered with ice, as will 
 later appear. 
 
 The sleeping apartment had its floor 
 about six inches higher than the drying 
 floor. The bed was made of thin shreds 
 or splinters of dry poplar wood. A 
 quantity of this material had been split 
 out with an expenditure of much time 
 and patience. A mattress three inches 
 or more thick, made of this soft, elastic 
 material would make a far better 
 than many campers can boast of. 
 
 Mud for use in house building 
 
 22 
 
procured, not only from the tunnel en- 
 trances and from the canal, but excava- 
 tions were made in the river bottom 
 near the house. A pocket was there 
 dug out, about twenty feet in diameter, 
 making the water six feet deep. 
 
 Into this hole the two beavers now 
 proceeded to store their food for the 
 winter. This consisted chiefly of the 
 trunks of poplar saplings, two to six 
 inches in diameter, cut into lengths of 
 four to six feet, the sticks of larger dia- 
 meter being the shorter. In the wood 
 pile were also placed the branches of the 
 same trees. Mixed in with the poplar 
 were some alders and a few birch and 
 soft maple sticks. The birch and alder 
 apparently were used to add spice and 
 tang to the otherwise sameness of their 
 more staple food. 
 
 In the edge of the forest next the 
 slough a few years before, a fire (doubt- 
 less started by some careless hunter), 
 had burned over several acres, and this 
 was now covered by a "second growth" 
 
 23 
 
of poplar. It was there that the beavers 
 cut most of their lumber. The water 
 in the slough was shallow and filled with 
 pond lillies, so a canal three feet wide, 
 two feet deep and two hundred and 
 twenty feet long was dug across this 
 mudhole. Through this canal the bea- 
 vers floated their sticks and brush and 
 placed them on their storage pile under 
 water so that the bark, which they eat, 
 might be kept soft and fresh for winter 
 use. Also, so that it might be reached 
 from their house under the ice, after 
 pond and river were frozen. 
 
 Day after day Bige and I watched 
 the progress of this harvest. Saw the 
 beaver towing the floating logs through 
 the canal into the pond and up the 
 river to the lumber pile where the 
 beaver would dive with his stick and 
 presently come to the surface again, 
 leaving the stick under the water; and 
 we wondered how he did it. Also we 
 discussed possible ways of making a 
 floating stick sink. From our boat we 
 
 24 
 
could see the pile of wood below the 
 surface of the water and we could see 
 no stones on the pile. 
 
 Bige stoutly argued in support of the 
 theory that the beaver sucked the air 
 out of the pores in the wood, that the 
 water fl6wed into the vacuum thus pro- 
 duced, making the stick heavy enough 
 to sink. In order to demonstrate his 
 theory, Bige took the axe from camp, 
 cut a poplar sapling an inch and a half 
 in diameter and the usual beaver length, 
 put one end in the water and sucked on 
 the other end of the stick. After re- 
 peated trials and failures to make the 
 stick do anything but float, Bige decided 
 that his "sucker was not powerful 
 enough." The next day, looking down 
 into the water from our boat, we saw 
 one end of the axe-cut stick in the wood 
 pile with other sticks cut by beaver 
 teeth. 
 
 After my return to the city, Bige 
 reported from time to time, making 
 visits to the beaver house, seeing beaver 
 
 25 
 

 Bige Testing the Power 
 of His Sucker 
 
swimming under the ice, carrying sticks 
 from the wood pile into the tunnel 
 leading to the house; also later, beaver 
 bringing peeled sticks out of the house 
 and placing them in a very orderly man- 
 ner on another pile. Reports also 
 reached me of beaver under the ice 
 digging pond lily roots and carrying 
 them into the house. 
 
 In the following April after the ice 
 in the pond had broken up, the beavers 
 came out of their winter home and 
 brought with them six young beaver 
 puppies. The father beaver with the 
 white head now went away on his sum- 
 mer exploration trip. We later learned 
 that it was the habit of all male beavers 
 to wander far from home during the 
 summer months. The mother remained 
 at the pond and took care of her six 
 young ones; but with them she moved 
 into the burrow in the bank where we 
 had first seen the old male beaver go to 
 hide. 
 
 Many times during the summer we 
 
 27 
 
saw the young beavers sunning them- 
 selves on the bank or playing in the 
 water near the shore. The mother was 
 always somewhere near, and invariably 
 sounded a warning by pounding the 
 water with her broad tail, whereupon 
 the youngsters would scamper for cover 
 and each would precede his dive by 
 slapping the water with his little ladle- 
 like tail, in feeble imitation of the 
 mother. 
 
 One day in June a hawk swooped 
 down, grabbed one of the young bea- 
 vers and carried him away. Later, a 
 pekan, sometimes called a fisher, killed 
 another one. Apparently the mother 
 scared him off. We found the dead 
 baby beaver, and tracks in the mud 
 gave us the name of his murderer. 
 
 Early in July of that summer, while 
 on a fishing trip to Wolf Pond, six miles 
 to the east, Bige and I met our white- 
 headed beaver friend. A slap on the 
 water and a shower of spray informed 
 us that we were recognized. It also 
 
 28 
 
l ->: 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 A 
 
spoiled our fishing for at least half an 
 hour. 
 
 Toward the end of the same month 
 we met him at the mouth of West Bay 
 Brook on Cedar Lake. This was nine 
 miles west of his home and fully fifteen 
 miles from Wolf Pond, where we last 
 saw him. 
 
 In the third week in August we again 
 saw our beaver with a white cap. This 
 time on Pine Brook where he was assist- 
 ing two other beavers (possibly a bro- 
 ther and sister of his,) in building a 
 dam across the brook. We were for- 
 tunate in being able to conceal our- 
 selves, and for a time watched opera- 
 tions. Apparently, our friend was boss- 
 ing the job and directing the operations 
 of the other two. It seemed that his 
 ability as an engineer was recognized 
 in beaver world, and he therefore had 
 been called in to supervise a difficult 
 undertaking. Thereafter we called him 
 the Chief Engineer, and he many times 
 proved his right to the title. 
 
 30 
 
In September the Chief Engineer 
 returned to his home at Cherry Pond, 
 and there followed a season of great 
 activity among the beavers. Some of 
 their work we were privileged to see in 
 progress, all of it we saw after comple- 
 tion. The young beavers were now 
 about one third the size of their parents, 
 but they all worked. 
 
 First, the entire family visited the 
 outlet of the pond, where the Chief 
 demonstrated to the others that with 
 the rocky stream bed and the accumu- 
 lated drift-wood, a dam would be un- 
 necessary to maintain water in the pond 
 at its present level. Next the house 
 must be enlarged to make room for a 
 family of six instead of two, as in the 
 previous winter. When completed, the 
 house was elliptical in shape, twenty- 
 two feet across its base in the short 
 diameter and thirty feet in its longer 
 dimension. It was also increased in 
 height to eight feet. The peeled sticks 
 piled up under the ice during the pre- 
 31 
 
vious winter were now utilized in mak- 
 ing additions to the house with other 
 sticks and brush brought from the 
 woods. 
 
 The interior of the house was enlarged 
 to more than twice its former size by 
 cutting away and dragging out through 
 the tunnels, surplus materials. In doing 
 this, several pillars were left standing 
 for supports to the enlarged ceiling. 
 
 Three additional tunnels were dug, 
 making five channels for entrance and 
 exit. Those terminating in shallow 
 water were continued as ditches to 
 deeper water. 
 
 The storage warehouse also was made 
 larger and deeper, not only to provide 
 mortar for enlarging the building, but 
 because more food must be stored for 
 six mouths than was required for two. 
 A very high grade of what is called 
 "instinct" in animals must be required 
 to calculate and determine just how 
 much food to store for a winter's supply 
 for a family of a given size. It has been 
 
 33 
 
asserted by those who think they know, 
 that in this matter a beaver never makes 
 a mistake. That he also stores an extra 
 amount of food for an unusually long 
 and severe winter. So far as I have 
 observed, they seem to come through 
 the winter in good physical condition. 
 
 A picture, which I have longed to 
 secure on a film, but which, so far, I 
 have only been able to fix on the retina 
 of an eye, represents a young beaver 
 about the size of a kitten, not fully 
 grown, in an upright position, holding 
 in his two hands and against his breast 
 a gob of mud, while he laboriously and 
 clumsily struggles up the steep side of 
 his house, on the roof of which he is 
 about to deposit his burden. In the 
 water, towing a young log or a bushy 
 branch, he is much more at home and 
 more graceful in his movements. 
 
 The following spring there came out 
 of our beaver house, the Chief Engineer, 
 his wife, four yearlings and a new 
 family of five babies. The "old man' 1 
 
 34 
 
now went off on his annual exploring 
 trip, but he took with him the four 
 older children, while the mother and the 
 babies remained behind. As usual, the 
 house was deserted during the summer 
 months. We now noted several bur- 
 rows under the bank at widely separate 
 places along shore. Sometimes the 
 beaver would be seen entering one of 
 these holes and again another. 
 
 It is interesting and easy, to study 
 the habits of wild creatures, and to note 
 how uniform are their methods and 
 practices. It is not so easy to determine 
 reasons for their peculiar way of doing 
 things. It is of course permissible to 
 speculate, but one might be expected 
 to furnish proof, when an assertion . is 
 made. For example, it has been stated 
 by at least two writers, that beaver 
 desert their homes in summer so that 
 the vermin which infest their huts may 
 die off from starvation during the ab- 
 sence of their fur coated hosts. 
 
 My own guess, if I were to hazard 
 
 35 
 
one, would be that since a beaver house 
 must generally be placed in an exposed 
 position, its owners find that with the 
 sun beating down on its roof during 
 June, July and August, the poorly ven- 
 tilated interior becomes too hot for 
 comfort. On the other hand, I have 
 noted that the burrows in which they 
 live in summer, are usually found under 
 some overhanging tree, in a cool spot 
 where the sun never penetrates. 
 
 During our wanderings through the 
 woods that summer, Bige and I came 
 upon a family of beavers at Mud Pond. 
 These were doubtless also emigrants 
 from the original Raquette Lake colony. 
 Great improvements were in progress. 
 An abandoned and broken down lumber 
 dam at the outlet, which had not been 
 used for lumber operations for many 
 years, was being rebuilt by the beavers, 
 and the Chief Engineer was on hand 
 assisting and directing operations. 
 
 On a subsequent visit, we saw the 
 completed dam which raised the waters 
 
 36 
 
I 
 
of the pond about three feet. An area 
 more than a mile long and a quarter 
 mile wide was now flooded. A swamp 
 at the upper end was entirely covered 
 and afforded water transportation from 
 a large grove of poplar trees, which 
 without the dam could not have been 
 reached. Five years later, on the shores 
 of this pond, the beavers had completely 
 cleared of trees more than ten acres of 
 ground. At this time four beaver houses 
 were observed on the shore and on 
 islands in Mud Pond. 
 
 When three years old, the children 
 of the Chief Engineer left the parental 
 homestead, mated with relatives in 
 other colonies and set up house building 
 and house keeping on their own account. 
 Some of them, doubtless, located many 
 miles away, others we know built 
 dams and houses on streams emptying 
 into Cherry Pond. 
 
 One summer Bige and I were trout 
 fishing on West Bay Brook. We worked 
 up stream about four miles from its 
 
 38 
 
Beaver Posing 
 
mouth, and encountered seven beaver 
 dams and as many houses. At one of 
 these dams we found the white capped 
 Chief working with some younger bea- 
 vers. Our guess was, that some of these 
 were his own offspring to whom he was 
 giving instruction in engineering prac- 
 tice. 
 
 A year later, on Fishing Brook, twenty 
 miles to the north-east, and fully fifty 
 miles from the original colony on the 
 Raquette tributary, we found several 
 beaver colonies. They also settled on 
 Minnow Brook. On Salmon River, 
 from its mouth to Salmon Pond (which 
 it drains), a distance of six miles, there 
 is now a beaver dam every half mile. 
 At one of these dams, a few years ago, 
 we found the Chief Engineer at work. 
 The dam was placed where the current 
 was swift, and a big rock in mid stream 
 was utilized as a pier, against which the 
 two sections of the dam were braced. 
 Such an adaptation of available means 
 to accomplish a difficult engineering 
 
 40 
 
feat is surely something more than 
 merely instinct. 
 
 On an exploring trip over the foot 
 hills of Dunwood Mountain, Bige and I 
 came upon a very unusual beaver dam 
 on Little Bear Brook. The brook at 
 this point flowed through a deep ravine. 
 The dam built across the valley mea- 
 sured in length at its top two hundred 
 and ten feet. It was fifteen feet from 
 the bottom of brook to top of dam, and 
 we estimated the width at its base at 
 forty feet. Water was flowing over a 
 spillway three feet wide at one end of 
 the dam. The upper and lower sides 
 of the dam sloped away steeply like 
 the roof of a house, and along the ridge 
 was a row of stones, each about the 
 size of a man's head. We walked across 
 the dam on these stones without wetting 
 our feet, and we wondered how the 
 beavers got them into position. It did 
 not seem possible that such small 
 animals could lift and carry these heavy 
 stones to where they were placed. It 
 
 42 
 
was impossible for a human to roll 
 them up over the lower and outer face 
 of the dam, which was a network of 
 interwoven and criss-crossed saplings, 
 sticks and brush. The only other 
 method which appeared to us possible 
 was for the stones to be rolled or pushed 
 up the upper and inner slope of the dam 
 under water to the top. The inner face 
 of the dam was of course plastered over 
 with mud and was relatively smooth. 
 
 We cooked our eggs, bacon and tea 
 on the bank at one end of the dam. 
 After we had eaten and drunken and 
 while I was engaged in taking some 
 photographs, we were agreeably sur- 
 prised to see our old friend, the bald 
 headed Chief Engineer, swimming down 
 the pond toward us. As a signal that 
 we were recognized, he saluted by hump- 
 ing his back, lifting his broad tail and 
 striking the water a resounding slap, 
 thus throwing a fountain of spray high 
 into the air. His presence signified to 
 us that this marvelous piece of engin- 
 
 44 
 
eering was the product of his skill in 
 plan and execution. 
 
 We were able to go in a boat past the 
 beaver house on our pond, about a 
 mile up the river. At the head of navi- 
 gation was a big flat rock, over which 
 the water flowed, making a fall about 
 one foot high, and above this fall were 
 rapids. An old and much used trail 
 started at this flat rock and led up the 
 river; a branch also took one to Wolf 
 Pond and another branch led to Dun- 
 wood Mountain. We often used this 
 trail, as also did other visitors at the 
 pond. And doubtless, so did the 
 Indians many years ago. 
 
 A pair of young beavers, both of them 
 probably relatives of the Chief Engineer, 
 built a dam across the river on this 
 flat rock. The dam was about two feet 
 high, backing the water up the rapids 
 thirty yards and making a fall of water 
 over the dam three feet high. Above 
 this dam the beavers started building 
 a house, but before the house was com- 
 
 45 
 
pleted, high water following three days 
 of rain washed away the dam. The 
 beavers at once rebuilt the dam in the 
 same spot, but within a month the dam 
 had been the second time washed away. 
 The high water of the following spring 
 carried the dam, rebuilt in the fall, off 
 of the flat rock for the third time. 
 
 On the smooth flat surface of this 
 rock there was no suitable anchorage 
 for a darn, and the unusual pressure of 
 high and swift flowing water pushed it 
 down stream and scattered the materials 
 of which it was built. 
 
 It was a bad dam-site! and this is 
 doubtless what the Chief Engineer told 
 the youngsters ; for it was at this period 
 that the Chief took a hand in the game. 
 
 The house that had been built above 
 the flat rock was abandoned and was 
 never again occupied. 
 
 A pair of beavers which we believed 
 to be the hard luck animals above men- 
 tioned, we now found were beginning 
 operations on a new dam about a quar- 
 
 46 
 
ter of a mile down the river, and the 
 Chief Engineer worked with them and 
 seemed to be directing the job. We 
 watched the progress of this enterprise 
 for many days and found it most inter- 
 esting. 
 
 At the spot selected, the river was 
 about a hundred and twenty feet wide 
 arid five feet deep in the middle. The 
 current was not very swift and a lot 
 of mud had settled on the gravelly 
 bottom. Saplings and bushy alders, 
 many of them fifteen to twenty feet 
 long, were used for a foundation. They 
 were always placed with the butt ends 
 up stream and stones on the bushy ends 
 held them firmly anchored on the bot- 
 tom. All sorts of materials were worked 
 into this dam; much of it was carried, 
 dragged or floated long distances. The 
 sticks and brush were interwoven in a 
 very ingenious manner, the chinks were 
 filled with sod, stones and mud. The 
 entire structure was firmly braced by 
 heavy sticks resting against the lower 
 
 47 
 
slope of the dam with one end of each 
 stick stuck in the ground at the bottom 
 of the river. 
 
 This dam at first was built up to 
 two feet above the normal level of the 
 river and water flowed over the top of 
 the dam; but the river banks were low 
 at this place and water also flowed over 
 the banks on one side into a slough 
 and on the other side into a swamp. 
 
 The second phase of this hydro- 
 engineering feat was now begun. It 
 consisted of wing dams two feet high 
 on top of the river bank and parallel to 
 the stream. These were carried up on 
 the north side of the river a distance of 
 three hundred and fifty feet and on the 
 south side about two hundred feet. The 
 dam across the river was also made two 
 feet higher. The dam now, in the 
 middle of the river, was five feet high 
 under water and four feet above the 
 surface, making it nine feet in the high- 
 est part and with the two wings, six 
 hundred and seventy feet long. 
 
 48 
 
We had visited the scene of opera- 
 tions at least twice every day during 
 the building and had casually discussed 
 the probable difficulty in reaching the 
 old trail up the river, but had not con- 
 sidered the matter seriously. One day 
 Bige and I dragged our boat up over 
 the dam and rowed up the river. Above 
 the end of the wing dam the forest was 
 flooded five hundred or more feet on 
 each side of the river, and if we wished 
 to follow the old trail we should have to 
 wade through water at least as far as 
 that; for it was impossible to push the 
 boat through the woods, between the 
 trees and bushes. 
 
 It was all very well and very inter- 
 esting to watch the operations of the 
 beaver, but rfiis was carrying a joke 
 too far. The beavers were now inter- 
 fering with our business. The beavers 
 are, of course, protected by law, but 
 here were hundreds of fine spruce, hem- 
 lock, pine and balsam trees being 
 drowned in our presence. The trees 
 
 49 
 
would die; they were valuable; they 
 belonged to the State and we were both 
 of us tax-payers. This thing must be 
 stopped at once. 
 
 We rowed back to the dam and spent 
 three hours tearing a hole three feet 
 wide through the middle of it. We 
 watched the water run out through the 
 break and then returned to camp. 
 
 The next morning we found the dam 
 had been repaired during the night and 
 the water was flowing over its top as 
 usual. Two guests arrived at our camp 
 that morning. They were interested in 
 the 'story of the dam and spent all of 
 the afternoon in making another open- 
 ing to let the water out; but again the 
 beavers had the dam repaired before 
 the following morning. The Doctor had 
 by now settled in his camp at the western 
 end of the pond. He came across with 
 his two husky boys and they broke a 
 hole through the dam for the third time ; 
 and the third time the beavers repaired 
 the breach during the night. 
 
 50 
 
Bige's fighting blood was now thor- 
 oughly "het up" and he said 'Til fix 
 them pesky beavers." A lot of men 
 were at work building a "tote road" 
 for a lumber camp over the other side 
 of the mountain about three miles from 
 our camp. Bige went over to call on 
 them, and he came back with four sticks 
 of dynamite and some fuse. These we 
 connected and placed on top of the dam. 
 We covered the dynamite with mud, 
 lighted the fuse, jumped into our boat 
 and rowed as fast as possible down 
 toward the pond. When a hundred 
 yards away, the explosion occured. With 
 a terrific roar that beaver dam was shot 
 toward the sky and toward every point 
 of the compass, and the water above 
 the dam came rushing through a gap 
 twenty feet wide. A later examination 
 proved, that the dam had been torn out 
 clear to the bottom of the river. Our 
 hand-made breaks had extended only 
 to the surface of the water below the 
 dam. 
 
 52 
 
That night a hurry up wireless call 
 went out, and before morning twenty- 
 three beavers were at work rebuilding 
 the dam, with the Chief Engineer in 
 command. We figured that delegations 
 must have come from a colony two miles 
 up the river, probably some from Mud 
 Pond, others from Pine Brook and Ra- 
 quette River. Certainly, there were not, 
 living on our pond, as many beavers as 
 we saw at work that night. By the 
 next morning the dam had been rebuilt 
 to the water level, and the second morn- 
 ing it was completely restored with 
 water flowing over the top. A curious 
 fact we noted, was, that while both 
 banks of the river were strewn with 
 fragments of the old dam, not a single 
 piece of this tainted and dangerous 
 material was used. New trees and 
 bushes were cut and carried greater 
 distances for the rebuilding. 
 
 At this stage of the war, Bige and I 
 surrendered. We were hopelessly out- 
 numbered and outclassed by the beavers. 
 
 53 
 
They worked while we were asleep. We 
 now got busy and cut out a new trail 
 around the swamp and the flooded area 
 to connect with the old trail. This 
 makes the walk fully a half mile longer 
 than before the dam was built. 
 
 The Chief Engineer had lived at 
 Cherry Pond ten years. He had brought 
 out a new family of from four to seven 
 individuals every spring. All of these 
 had been housed and fed for two or three 
 years, when they were old enough to 
 emigrate and set up in business anct 
 housekeeping on their own. During 
 these ten years a large quantity of bark 
 had been consumed and poplar, the 
 favorite food of beaver, had practically 
 all been cut ofl. Along the shores and 
 on the islands no more was to be found. 
 It v/as, therefore, necessary to seek new 
 sources of food supply. 
 
 Beyond the swamp, to the northeast 
 
 of the river mouth, there was a grove of 
 
 poplar trees, covering several acres. It 
 
 was nearly a half mile to this grove, but 
 
 54 
 
not too far for the courage of our Chief, 
 who now set his gang of youngsters at 
 work digging a canal. This canal had 
 an average width of three feet and it was 
 two and a half feet deep. It was made 
 quite crooked through the swamp, wind- 
 ing around and between clumps of 
 alders and larger trees. Smaller trees 
 were dug up and roots which crossed the 
 path of the canal were cut off as clean 
 as if chopped with an axe. 
 
 Water in the canal through the swamp 
 maintained practically the level of the 
 pond. There was a gradual rise of 
 ground beyond the swamp and here a 
 series of dams or locks were built. Each 
 dam raised the level of water from two 
 to three feet. There were thirteen of 
 these levels varying in length from fifty, 
 to two hundred and fifty feet. Water 
 from a spring brook was diverted into 
 the canal and flowed over each dam. 
 The beavers towed their lumber through 
 this canal and dragged it over the 
 several dams, each of which seemed to 
 
 55 
 
2 
 
 H 
 
 ] 
 
 TT 
 
 P S 
 
 n 
 
 ? 
 
be especially constructed to facilitate 
 this operation. The length of this canal 
 we estimated to be twenty-five hundred 
 feet. 
 
 Beavers appear to prefer the bark of 
 smaller trees, but they do not hesitate to 
 cut down a large one when necessary. 
 In such case they carry away the 
 branches only. A poplar tree eighteen 
 inches in diameter was cut on the shore 
 of our pond and felled into the water. 
 The branches that .remained above the 
 surface were cut off and carried to the 
 storage pile. Those that were under 
 water were left and were cut off under 
 the ice during the following winter. 
 
 Beavers are generally peaceable. They 
 have many admirable traits. Individ- 
 uals of one colony will assist those of 
 another in strenuous operations much 
 as pioneer humans helped each other in 
 building log cabins, in barn raisings, 
 etc. Many tales are told. One, of a 
 family whose house had been destroyed, 
 being taken into another's house and 
 
 57 
 
Tree 18 Inches in Diameter 
 Partly Cut by Beaver 
 
the two families living together all win- 
 ter. Another story relates how a mother 
 beaver was killed, when another immed- 
 iately adopted the five orphans and 
 brought them up with her own children. 
 We have recorded above, instances 
 where the Chief Engineer was contri- 
 buting his remarkable skill and exper- 
 ience toward solving the problems of 
 his friends in widely separated parts of 
 the forest. And we believe he did not 
 insist upon union rules in regard to 
 wage, hours of labor, or minimum out- 
 put. 
 
 Our observations justify the belief 
 that at least some beavers have a sense 
 of humor. We mention two incidents 
 in support of the theory. One day on 
 the big lake, near the hotel, I saw two 
 girls about twelve years of age, in a 
 canoe. These girls were chasing a 
 beaver. The beaver was swimming on 
 the surface and he was more than half 
 a mile from his house. He could easily 
 have outdistanced the canoe and got 
 
 59 
 
away from it, but he chose to swim 
 slowly and allow the canoe to approach 
 until the girls might have touched him 
 with a paddle, when he would hump 
 himself, slap the water with his tail, 
 *thus throwing showers of spray over 
 the girls, while he dived under the canoe 
 and presently came to the surface in 
 some new and unexpected position. The 
 girls, of course, with screams and excited 
 shouts frantically swung the canoe into 
 position and started the chase over 
 again; while the beaver loafed along 
 until they caught up. This game of tag, 
 played by the girls and the beaver I 
 watched for twenty minutes or more 
 and each time the girls came near enough 
 to the animal he managed to throw 
 water on them. I feel certain that he 
 enjoyed the game quite as much as the 
 two girls, and while I did not hear the 
 beaver laugh, I thought I saw a grin 
 on his face. 
 
 The cottage where our family live 
 during the summer, stands on a bank 
 60 
 
about thirty feet above the water and 
 fifty feet from the shore of the lake. 
 A number of shade trees have been 
 planted on the grounds about the house. 
 Among these were two poplar trees 
 which we had carefully nursed for five 
 years, and they were growing fine. One 
 of them was directly in front of the cot- 
 tage and twenty feet from the steps. 
 It was six inches in diameter. The 
 other tree was four inches in diameter 
 and about thirty feet from one side of 
 the house. 
 
 A mile up the lake was a large beaver 
 house. The shores near this house on 
 both sides of the lake, were lined with 
 poplar trees and an island near by was 
 covered with them. One night a beaver 
 from this colony came down the lake 
 and cut down the poplar tree in front 
 of our door, cut it into suitable lengths 
 and towed it back up the lake to his 
 house. In the morning all that was 
 left where my tree stood, was a stump 
 and some chips. The following night 
 
 61 
 
8 
 
 o 
 J3 
 
he came again and cut the other tree. 
 He must have made several trips to tow 
 back to his storage pile the lumber he 
 cut at my front door. 
 
 I have devoted some time to specu- 
 lating as to the motive that might con- 
 ceivably actuate a perfectly sane and 
 intelligent beaver to haul his lumber 
 more than a mile, when in doing so he 
 would have to pass by hundreds of other 
 equally good trees, many of them within 
 a few rods of his house. The only rea- 
 sonable answer I have been able to 
 secure to this conundrum is that the 
 beaver probably thought it would be 
 a good joke on me; and I have a mental 
 picture of him laughing in his sleeve as 
 he dragged the logs down the bank in 
 front of my door while I slept. 
 
 Early in October, a few years ago, 
 Bige and I were entertaining three guests 
 at our Cherry Pond camp. For two 
 days we had been hunting with indif- 
 ferent success. Awakening quite early 
 one morning, I took my rifle and leav- 
 
 63 
 
ing the other members of the party 
 audibly sleeping on the balsam, tiptoed 
 out of camp and down the trail. A 
 log-road paralleled the shore of the 
 pond and I wandered down this road, 
 hoping to get an early morning shot at 
 a deer. It was still quite dark and I 
 found that the sights on my gun were 
 still invisible in the dim light, so I sat 
 on a log and waited for the first yellow 
 light to appear over East Inlet Moun- 
 tain. Then, continuing my silent, stalk- 
 ing way, when opposite the mouth of 
 the river, I heard curious and unusual 
 sounds. Peering through the bushes 
 across the slough I saw a black bear. 
 He was on top of the beaver house and 
 with his claws was tearing out sticks, 
 brush and sod and throwing them in 
 every direction. The bear was very 
 busy and with great energy and deter- 
 mination he was proceeding to dig out 
 the Chief Engineer. Of course I knew 
 that the Chief was in no personal danger, 
 as he had a perfectly safe way of retreat 
 64 
 
Bear Wrecking Beaver House 
 
open, under water. But I could not 
 stand idly by and see his roof torn off: 
 so I took careful aim and fired. The 
 bear tumbled down the steep slope of 
 the beaver house and I had visions of 
 bear steak, etc., etc. But he immed- 
 iately got on his feet and wallowed 
 through the slough to the shore. As 
 he crossed the log-road headed toward 
 the woods I fired again and the second 
 time the bear fell. It did not take him 
 long to recover his balance and start 
 at high speed up the steep hillside. 
 About ten rods from where I stood, the 
 bear came into an opening in the bushes 
 which had once been a skid-way for 
 logs; here he stopped, put his fore paws 
 up on a log and looked back at me. 
 "Now," I said, to the trees and bushes, 
 "he's coming back to argue with me." 
 Before he started, however, the third 
 shot cut a bunch of hair off of his shoul- 
 der and he resumed his journey up the 
 mountain and I went back to camp. 
 
 The racket made by three shots in 
 
 66 
 
the early morning had suddenly inter- 
 rupted the camp chorus, and I was 
 greeted with the inquiry, " Where's the 
 deer?" 
 
 "That deer/' said I, "is a bear, and 
 he's big as a horse. I left him up in the 
 woods. We'll go and get him after 
 breakfast." 
 
 Bige allowed that "if it really was a 
 bear, he wasn't hurt much. You 
 couldn't kill a bear with that pop-gun. 
 (I was using a Winchester 30). Why, 
 a bear's hide is thicker than sole-leather 
 and this time of year he has an armor- 
 plate of fat under it, six inches thick. 
 You might as well try to shoot a hole 
 through a feather pillow. If you are 
 going to hunt bear, take an elephant- 
 gun a 45-90." 
 
 After breakfast, we all started out on 
 the trail of the bear. We found blood 
 spots in the log-road. We also meas- 
 ured a foot print in a soft place in the 
 path. It was twelve inches in diameter. 
 Broken bushes, blood spots on fallen 
 
 67 
 
trees and on leaves marked his route up 
 the steep slope. Half way up the moun- 
 tain on a big ledge of rocks, covered 
 with moss, the bear had been lying down. 
 A pool of blood marked the spot. Also, 
 numerous tufts of moss torn from the 
 rock and saturated with blood were 
 scattered about. Apparently the bear 
 had pulled up handfuls of the soft moss 
 and used it in the same manner that a 
 surgeon uses lint. 
 
 Bige suggested, 'This is a first aid 
 station for bears; but if you should tell 
 anyone what you have seen here, you 
 will be put in the class of Nature Fakirs. " 
 
 We followed the bear's trail from the 
 mossy rock up to the top of the moun- 
 tain and had started down the other 
 side when it began to rain. In a few 
 minutes the rain had washed away the 
 red stains and we lost the trail and 
 returned to camp. But that bear is 
 going yet. Also, he is carrying with him 
 three bullets that belong to me. Some 
 day, somewhere in the woods, I expect 
 
 68 
 
to meet him again, when I shall take 
 those bullets away from him. 
 
 It is now seventeen years since we 
 first met the Chief Engineer. He still 
 retains the monopoly of his trade mark. 
 Within our knowledge, no other beaver 
 has appeared with a white spot on his 
 head. But the Chief shows his age. 
 His brown coat of fur looks faded and 
 grey, and the white spot is less conspic- 
 uous. The Chief was a member of the 
 first colony installed for the purpose 
 of restocking the northern forests; and 
 he has contributed his share, both to 
 increasing the inhabitants and to re- 
 building beaver industries. Every sea- 
 son a new family of four to seven bea- 
 vers have been sent out from his home 
 to start other families, and so they have 
 multiplied in a sort of geometrical pro- 
 gression until now they cover many 
 hundreds of square miles of forest land 
 and water. Early in 1920 the Conser- 
 vation Commissioner of the State of 
 New York estimated that there were 
 
 69 
 
more than twenty thousand beavers in 
 the Adirondack region. My guess is 
 that this estimate is much too low. 
 
 One day last summer, Bige and I saw 
 the Chief Engineer dive and enter a 
 tunnel leading to his house. We silently 
 paddled up close to the house and lis- 
 tened. Presently we heard a murmur of 
 beaver conversation inside. "Gosh!" 
 said Bige, "the old Chief is giving in- 
 structions to the kid beavers. He's 
 telling 'em how to handle the job they 
 have to do tonight." 
 
 70 
 
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 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
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