Show N davi a vi t t chapters from can canadas ad as jungle books beaver Alas masonry onry TO tonquin aquin valley vailey ethe EXPANSION ap appears p cars to be the order of the day nations tribes and people made restless by a number of causes apparently beyond control are reaching out for new lands to populate invaded by insatiate man the haunts of all wild things are approaching the stage when they will no longer serve as protection or as a habitat what about this place in the sun that all things living crave and now quoting major fred brewster who has for more than forty years roamed the canadian and knows the habits ot of every living creature above and below the timber line it has come to a point where the beaver super carpenter and builder among dwellers in in the animal kingdom has been driven from his woodland source of the material from which lie he fashions his home and takes refuge from his enemies finds it necessary to use stone in the dams he constructs to control the water supply essential to his existence I 1 had alway thought that there was ample beaver cover in the valleys of the particularly throughout the jasper park reserve beavers again multiplying there would be if the beaver could be controlled in the selection of a home site said the major but it just cant be done in such matters he is an individualist with a rare genius for uniting food and water to suit his whims during the old hudsons Hud sons badera bay era and later the northwest company afterward combined when trapping was general throughout the country hundreds of thousands of beaver were taken for the market with the influx of civilization they were almost exterminated in fact when jasper park was created in 1917 a beaver was a rarity today under protective laws they are again multiplying and threatening if allowed their own way to overrun the sanctuary the wardens are kept busy dis possessing beaver families that have built dams which unless kept belowa a certain level rise and flood the park trails keep i always in mind that the beaver n never ever satisfied with a small estate goes right on building elevating the water line increasing the building operations until he has turned a pond into a lake in keeping the water line several feet above the underwater entrance to his home which rises domelike he is assured protection Economic economically aUy regarded the beaver stands in a class by himself sustained by the tender branches and sprouts of the poplar and birch trees which he turns into food and gnaws into desired lengths for the construction of his dams whatever is too tough for diet is used in constructing ting the dam and the residence strengthened and united with mud a byproduct by product of riparian activities animals are stone INIa masons sons the beaver census then is rising yes too rapidly im afraid for the beavers good it if allowed to proceed unrestrained there would soon be a thousand beaver where twenty years ago there was a pair As is the case in all walks of life in both the human and animal world quarters are a bit crowded and there is nothing left but to move on last summer along meadow meado creek in tonquin valley few feet t elevation about half a mile above the park wardens cabin I 1 came upon the scene of a beaver building operation that completely staggered me that beaver wholly dependent upon POP poplar I 1 ar birch and willows for food and wood in the scheme of self preservation should have selected a site almost wholly lacking in these essentials was more than I 1 could fathom the small supply of dwarf birch scrub and poplar and moose willows finding only a thin soil for meant hard sledding for the new squatters who were not visible at the time although I 1 found plenty of fresh evidence of their presence in the neighborhood in fact they had begun construction of the ae dam using sticks twigs and wood refuse none of it exceeding a foot in length whereas in beaver colonies below the timber line six foot logs 8 inches in diameter are common I 1 could see at a glance that only the most heroic activity would enable the builders to throw up a dam that could impound sufficient water to protect a hut and its occupants upon further examination of the restraining wall I 1 found to my utter t er amazement that rocks some of them the size of my two fists I 1 ind had been pushed down the creek bed and thrust up on the mud incline there to be fastened in proper position with sticks and clay here for the first time within my experience covering more than forty years I 1 beheld indisputable evidence that the beaver from time immemorial a skillfully skill full carpenter was also a stone mason evju 0 service |