Identifier: marvelsofnewwest1889thay (find matches)
Title: Marvels of the new West : a vivid portrayal of the stupendous marvels in the vast wonderland west of the Missouri River : comprising marvels of nature, marvels of race, marvels of enterprise, marvels of mining, marvels of stock-raising, and marvels of agriculture, graphically and truthfully described
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Thayer, William Makepeace, 1820-1898
Subjects:
Publisher: Norwich, Conn. : Henry Bill Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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ced and bolder than the rest,—perhaps the offi-cials of the city, — sit upon their holes, elevated like potato-hills, andbark defiantly, Dogtown is certainly one of the marvels of the West.A beaver town is, in some respects, more interesting than a prairie-dog town. Beavers colonize arid establish homes with singular inge-nuity and perseverance. Forty years ago, when trapping in theRocky Mountains was in its prime, the beaver population was im-mense. They were able to dam large rivers, and even to turn the 3IO MARVELS OF THE NEW WEST. course of rivers. Groves of trees they gnaw down and cut up intologs of suitable length for building dams. They work like beavers is a phrase suggested by the industry and persistent labors of thislittle animal. Trappers and tourists frequently discover their damsnow, long since built and deserted. William A. Baillie-Grohman,the English author, who has traversed the Rockies from base to top,describes a scene in the Wind River Mountains. The pools had
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BEAVERTOWN. evidently once been one single lake ; but the beaver, by ingeniousdikes, had divided it into six or seven smaller sheets of water, lyingtier-like, one slightly raised over the other. The nearest to thespring, the water was of course the highest, about eight or ten feetbeing the difference between its water level and that of the lowest;miniature cascades and channel-like timber floats, connecting the dif-ferent lakelets. These channels for timber are very ingeniously laid-out contrivances, from three to five feet in width, and from two tofour feet in depth ; they are intended for floating larger pieces of MARVELS OF ENTERPRISE. 311 wood from place to place, especially where the previously constructeddikes render the transportation of trunks a difficult or impossible jobfor the little workers. * Beavers have left far more lasting and useful monuments of theirlaborious activity on the surface of the country than the aboriginalinhabitants. Whole valleys are fertilized by them,

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