ll section out of
the dam to let us through. I objected, but was assured that the beavers
were not very busy, just now, and would not mind--in fact might rather
enjoy--a repair job, which would take them but a brief time.

"They can do it sometime while I'm making a long carry," Charlie said.

But it was no easy matter to cut through. Charlie and Del worked with
the ax, and dragged and pulled with their hands. Finally a narrow breach
was made, but it would have been about as easy to unload the canoes and
lift them over. Half-way up the long hole we came to the lodge--its top
rising above the water. Its entrance, of course, was below the surface,
but the guides said there is always a hole at the top, for air. It was a
well-built house--better, on the whole, than many humans construct.

"They'll be scrambling around, pretty soon," Charlie said, "when they
find the water getting lower in their sitting room. Then they'll send
out a repair gang. Poor little fellers! Somebody'll likely get 'em
before we come again. I know one chap that got seven last year. It's too
bad."

Yes, it is too bad. Here is a wonderful race of creatures--ingenious,
harmless--a race from which man doubtless derived his early lessons in
constructive engineering. Yet Nova Scotia is encouraging their
assassination by permitting the traffic in their skins, while she salves
her conscience by enacting a law against their open slaughter. Nova
Scotia is a worthy province and means well. She protects her moose and,
to some extent, her trout. But she ought to do better by the beavers.
They are among her most industrious and worthy citizens. Their homes and
their industries should be protected. Also, their skins. It can't be
done under the present law. You can't put a price on a man's head and
keep him from being shot, even if it is against the law. Some fellow
will lay for him sure. He will sneak up and shoot him from behind, just
as he would sneak up and shoot a beaver, and he will collect his reward
in either case, and the law will wink at him. Maybe it would be no
special crime to shoot the man. Most likely he deserved it, but the
beaver was doing nobody any harm. Long ago he taught men how to build
their houses and their dams, and to save up food and water for a dry
time. Even if we no longer need him, he deserves our protection and our
tender regard.[6]

FOOTNOTES:

[6] I have just learned from Eddie that Nova Scotia has recently enacted
a new law,