Realizing that the supply of aspens near the waters of the Moraine Colony close to my home was almost exhausted, I wondered whether it would be possible for the beavers to procure a sufficient supply downstream, or whether they would deem it best to abandon this old colony and migrate. Out on the plains, where cottonwoods were scarce, the beavers first cut those close to the colony, then harvested those upstream, sometimes going a mile for them, then those downstream; but rarely were the latter brought more than a quarter of a mile. If enemies did not keep down the population of a colony so situated, it was only a question of time until the scarcity of the food-supply compelled the colonists to move either up or down stream and start anew in a place where food trees could be obtained. But not a move until necessity drove them! Not far from my home in the mountains the inhabitants of two old beaver colonies endured hardships in order to remain in the old place. One colony, in order to reach a grove of aspens, dug a canal three hundred and thirty-four feet long, which had an average depth of fifteen inches and a width of twenty-six inches. It ended in a grove of aspens, which were in due time cut down and floated through this canal into the pond, alongside the beaver house. The other colony endured dangers and greater hardships. During the summer of 1900 an extensive forest fire on the northerly slope of Long's Peak wrought great hardship among beaver colonies along the streams in the fire district. This fire destroyed all the aspens and some of the willows. In order to have food while a new growth of aspens was developing, the beavers at a colony on the Bierstadt Moraine were compelled to bring their winter supply of aspens the distance of a quarter of a mile from an isolated grove that had escaped the fire. This stood on a bench of the moraine at an altitude about fifty feet greater than that of the beaver pond. Aspens from the grove were dragged about two hundred feet, then floated across a small water-hole, and from this taken up the steep slope of a ridge, then down to a point about one hundred feet from the pond. Between this place and the pond was a deep wreckage of fire-killed and fallen spruces. To cut an avenue through these was too great a task for the beavers; so with much labor they dug a canal beneath the wide heap of wreckage, and through this, beneath the gigantic fallen trees, the harvested aspens were dragged and piled in the pond for winter food. The gathering of these harvests, even by beavers, must have been almost a hopeless task. In going thus far from water many of the harvesters were exposed to their enemies, and it is probable that many beavers lost their lives. [Illustration: THE 334-FOOT CANAL]