woods I discovered two men busy
dynamiting the largest of the three beaver dams in the valley.

"Mining didn't pan out much," one of them replied in answer to my
question, "so we callated we'd take sum beaver fur to tide us over the
winter."

They were prospectors, out of grub, up against starving or getting a
job in the foothills town below, until with their golden promises, they
could again talk some sympathetic listener out of a grub stake. Not
content with obtaining beaver by the usual but slower method of
trapping, they had decided to blow up the dam, drain the pond and shoot
the animals as they sought to escape. Their rifles lay ready to their
hands.

For hours I lingered, to see what luck they would have. They set off
three heavy charges before the dam was shattered. When the water was
nearly drained out--it took but a few minutes--they grabbed their guns.
Not a beaver did any of us see.

They then set a charge of powder against the house and blew a gaping
hole in its side--but there was nobody home! Evidently all had escaped
by the canal in the bottom of the pond to the tunnel beneath the bank.

The men would not admit defeat, but set about to dig the beavers out of
the bank. Darkness saw their task unfinished so they camped for the
night at the entrance of the tunnel; they piled heavy stones at its
mouth hoping to trap the animals within.

Next morning I watched them resume their work, feeling sympathy for the
beavers, but not daring to interfere. Shortly after noon the quest
ended quite unexpectedly. The diggers had discovered a hidden exit
that was concealed among the willows, the beavers had followed the
canal, which could not be drained, to their refuge tunnel in the bank;
and when their enemies destroyed the tunnel, they had used the hidden
exit, and had in all probability made good their retreat during the
night.

As more people settled in the valleys, there was an inevitable
overlapping of claims. The settlers claimed both the water and the
land, and they had government deeds to back them up in their claims.
But the beaver had prior rights, and gamely adhered to them. A feud
arose that is still unsettled between the Old Settlers and the
newcomers. In my rambles I continually came upon homesteaders striving
to drain the valleys and raise grass for their cattle, while
simultaneously the beavers were working to maintain high water. Many
of them lost their lives for their cause, but rar