Show BEAVERS IN THE BOOKIES ROOKIES interesting observations about their curlonis dam dains an fn new cw york R suni Ble medicine dicine bow range beavers have been an active factor in the tile formation of mountain parks I 1 do not write of parks such as the south middle and north parks in in the rocky mountains in colorado but of those from one to eiga eighty ty acres in in area that lie in the mountain solitudes surrounded by unbroken forests parks that are covered with a denso dense growth of grass grm and willows in clu clumps in these parks where the feed is X plentiful ticul and the cover excellent are the favorite f feeding places of the elk and deer when the sun sinks behind the snow clad peaks the air above these peaks grows chilly and the blood of py insects the tile scourge e of the 1 mountains in early summer circus ates slowly and as the shadows of the pines advance across the parks t these hese bloodsucking blood sucking insects that fairly stiffened the ligh air during the heat of the day iu benumbed anday and by 6 in the tile eveni evening ng if the altitude be feet t they he have retired for the night then the deer rise from the thick cover in the forest where they have lain motionless in hiding from flies and walk scowl slowly toward these parks to drink of the cold water and to feed throughout the night theae these deer parks have almost al most without exception cep tion been formed by the filling up of beaver dams this summer my business of pining opening a placer mine has kept me ili in the highlands the pick and shovel have laid bare the old works of the beavers heaven the method of the formation of these small parks has been made clear to me many years a ago 0 long after the flow ot oi gravel cown known among placer ia min miners ers as wash gravel fi had ceased and ven vegetation tation covered tile bottoms of th the narrow valleys that had been gouged out of the granite hills by ice and water the beavers searching for sites for homes entered the mountains avoiding the rocky canyons and deep gorges where the water was swift and had sufficient force to sweep away any works the intelligent animals might erect they sought the points where a a reef of rock of extraordinary hardness had withstood the gouging of ice ice and wear of water these recta acting rui a dams retarded the tile how flow of water sufficiently to allow the sediment it was charged with to be precipitated this depositing of sediment for many years created a comparatively level tract of land above the reef just above thia this granite point the beavers began work A deep trench was dug across the valley on the line of tho the proposed dam this ditch was i invariably n sunk through tho the muck clay and sand and in the majority of cases through the compact gold bearing gravel on the uncovered couch of the ziden golden gravel tho foundations of the dam am were laid selecting trees that stood in proper positions the beavers gnawed them off close to the ground round judging from the man many teaver beaver dams I 1 chave have uncover uncovered ra summer the animals thoroughly understand tho the art of f felling elling trees it is seldom that a tree bearing tho the marks of their teeth is found outside of tile line of their dam trees forty feet long and and a foot in diameter aro are not uncommon in these old works the trees when cut fell into the trench muck bluck and clay bound together with coarse grass were packed solidly into and around the lower logs ggs making a watertight foundation for the beaver dam the upper works were bu built ailt of smaller trees and in the lower dams cf of pine boughs cunningly interwoven the surface of the dam that was next the water was covered with a thick compact layer of clay and muck the absence of all deciduous woods in the lower dams is marked the aam dam finished the cami family INV were re established in their home I 1 houam rude mounds of sticks and clay were built in the blackwater slackwater slack kwater water being surrounded by water they were safa safe from aFe assaults aults of carnivore ous animals during the summer and freezing solidly they successfully resia resisted ted all attacks made on them during the winter the beavers overe safe they reared their young the family increased rapidly idl M more 0 re houses were built the he mountain valley though apparently parent ly level above the dam actually ha had great inclination and the slack water though it extended from mountain flank to mountain flank across the valley did not extend up tip it moro more than thirty or feet As the years rolled by coarse swamp grass and willows sprang into life around the edges of the w water sand and earth torn from the mountain sides by tiny streams of water formed during the rainy periods and when the snow melted were carried by the creek to the slack water of the dam and there deposited grad gradually u al ly it must have taken many years the first dam was filled epand no longer afforded the beavers a safe home instead of raising the tile dam they cut a perpendicular cular slot in it so as to drain off the water moving up ther stream to where the edge of the water wag was before they cut the dam they dug another trench sinking it to the bed bedrock rock the wood of willow bushes appears in elih section of the dam showing that this wood was established in the country at the time of the building of the tile second dam the second works are always alway s longer than the first and generally higher some efthem of them are very extensive one that I 1 have very often seen ia is feet long and ani eighty feet high and though built many years ago as great pine trees are now standing on it is as solid as on the day it was finished the dam completed and the houses built the beavers heave ra were again established again the deposited sand and earth shoaled them out of i their house houses again they moved up stream this successive build ig of dams up tip the stream was carried carrid on until the mouth of the canyon on or gorl gorge e next above the upper dam am forbade further operations when the last dam am was filled up the formation of the park was complete the beavers having performed their part of natures plans abandoned the park moving illga up stream to where another reef butted jutted across the valley they resumed operations it may be that several families of beavers entered the valle valley y at about the same time and ae selecting ing different reefs for build building ipg s E 1 ites es the formation of the parks arks in in the same valley was simultaneous but I 1 think not as in in many cases the upper dam of the upper park is still by beavers it Is s noteworthy that the upper dam ofa park abandoned by y beavers is generally intact showing that the animals realized the uselessness of draining off the water as they had no suitable ground on which to build another dam the works erected by the beavers resulted in my ol opinion in the formation of the mountain parks As affecting the interests of the animals it haa has been disastrous they have been forced to migrate in ill search earch of other homes |