s, he said, had followed Kit Carson's successful trip
into the region in 1840. They visited every stream and strung traps in
all the valleys. Beaver fur was taken out by pack-train load. In
twenty years the trappers had reaped the richest of the harvest; in ten
years more they had practically "trapped out" all the beavers. They
left only when trapping ceased to be profitable; and even so, the early
settlers had found some small profit in catching a few beavers every
winter.

The survivors, my old friend said, were wiser if sadder animals than
those the first trappers found. Many beavers had maimed or missing
feet, reminders of the traps that caused their trouble. They deserted
their ponds, neglected their dams and houses and sought refuge in holes
in the banks of streams. Their tunnels entered the bank under water,
thus making it difficult to locate their runways, or to set traps after
the discovery of the runways.

So that was the reason for the beavers scarcity and wariness! Few were
the chances they gave me, on my early rambles, to observe their habits.
But just when it seemed they were doomed to suffer the fate of the
buffalo, Colorado and a few other states woke up to the fact that
beavers were threatened to be classed with the dodo, and feeble
measures were taken to protect them. Slowly their numbers increased,
they returned to their normal habits of living, and rebuilt their dams
and houses.

Down in the valley below my cabin, within a few rods of the spot where
the ruins of Kit Carson's cabin still stand, are two small streams
along which I early found numerous traces of beaver. At the confluence
of these streams were dams and houses that were not entirely deserted;
for occasionally the beavers did some repair work. Since they were
within five minutes' walk of my cabin I visited them frequently during
all seasons of the year. Five times I saw the beavers return to the
old home site, repair the dams and rebuild the houses. Four times I
saw them forced to desert their home, once because a fire burned the
surrounding trees which were their source of food, the other times to
elude trappers.

I discovered that this colony consisted of a trap-maimed old couple and
their annual brood. The male had lost a portion of his right hind
foot, his mate had only a stump for her left front one. I early dubbed
them Mr. and Mrs. Peg, and came to have a real neighborly affection for
them. Their infirmities made