"That fellow must have thought a tree fell on him," said Bige. The boat, we found did not leak, so we went fishing. Passing a small island about a mile up the pond, we noticed a young green poplar tree had fallen into the water. There had been no wind storm for months and we did not know of any other campers on the pond so we wondered who could have cut down that poplar, and why? We went ashore to investigate. The tree we found was about four inches in diameter at the butt and it had not been chopped, but had been gnawed off. The ground about the stump was strewn with chips and one branch had been gnawed off and carried away. The tooth marks on the stump were like those on the bow of our boat, and looked as if made by a curved chisel about a quarter inch wide. The chips were from two to four inches long and were clean cut on each end and split out as if they had come from a wood chopper's axe.
Bige said, "Gosh! that looks like the work of beaver, but there are no beaver in these woods, haven't been any here for sixty years."
A few minutes later we found the branch which had been cut from the fallen poplar floating on the water near shore opposite the island. The bark had been stripped from it down to the smallest twig and it appeared white and conspicuous when seen from a distance of fifty yards.
Proceeding on our way toward the fishing ground, we presently saw the head of some animal above the surface. It was swimming toward us and waves were spreading out fan wise in its wake, on the smooth surface of the pond. Instantly we became motionless and watched its approach. When within fifteen or twenty yards of our boat it stopped, eyeing us curiously, then swung to the right and again to the left, apparently for the purpose of viewing us from different angles. Its back appearing above the surface was covered with a reddish brown fur with long grey hairs showing at intervals. There was a large white spot on the top of his head (this we later learned was not a characteristic marking, a white spot being quite unusual on animals of this family, and it enabled us to recognize our first acquaintance from among the many members of his tribe whom we subsequently met.) Two large, projecting and curving cutting teeth on the upper and two on the lower jaw appeared when he opened his mouth. There were also eight molars on each jaw. His eyes were inconspicuous and his ears were small but he had a broad, flat tail, shaped somewhat like the blade of a paddle.
Having, apparently, decided that it would be unwise to cultivate a closer acquaintance with two men in a boat, our swimmer humped his back, lifted high his broad tail and with it struck the water a powerful slap, the noise of which reverberated from "Mud Pond Mountain to East Inlet Holler" and it threw a shower of water and spray eight or ten feet into the air, looking like some of the war pictures of exploding mines.
The animal disappeared under water but a long line of air bubbles coming to the surface marked his progress under water. These we followed about two hundred yards to where they ended at the opposite shore. A closer examination disclosed the entrance, about two feet under the surface, of a burrow which seemed to rise under the high bank.
"Well," said Bige, "that's the fellow who met up with our boat last night. He's a beaver all right, but where in tunket did he come from?"
Camp Fireplace
The incidents here related occurred while we were camping at Cherry Pond, seventeen years ago. We had learned in many conversations with Mitchell Sabattis (an Indian who died at a very advanced age a few years ago, and who was the oldest inhabitant of this region), about the Indians trapping beaver here, and how they sold hundreds of skins to John Jacob Astor, who became rich dealing in furs which he purchased throughout the northern forests and in Canada.