During the next few days the boys made good progress. They passed the Yellow Medicine, Sparrowhawk and Redwood rivers. On the fourth day when but a few miles above the mouth of the Cottonwood, Raven Wing said: "Let us go ashore. It is time we ate."

So they beached the canoes on a sandy shore. Hawk Eye took out pemmican and dried bear meat from a pack and sat down beside Raven Wing. When their hunger was satisfied, Hawk Eye said:

"I think there may be beavers upstream," pointing to a rivulet that emptied into the Minnesota a short distance from them. "If so, and there are many, we can come here later on and get pelts. Shall we see?"

"By all means," agreed Raven Wing. "Let us go at once."

Picking up their bows and arrows, they started off. Following the winding course of the stream for a considerable distance they came to a dam which held back the water and formed a fair-sized lake.

At once the boys knew that it had been built by beavers. The Musquash, sometimes called the muskrat, although it ought to be called the muskbeaver, because it is really a beaver and no rat at all, never builds dams nor digs canals. It has a flat tail like the beaver and not at all resembling the tapering tail of water rat. It builds houses, much like the beaver's, only smaller.

"We will not forget this spot," chuckled Raven Wing. "We will get many pelts on our next visit."

"No one shall learn of its location," added Hawk Eye. "We will get the pelts for ourselves."

"The dam is in fine condition," said Raven Wing, who had climbed up upon it.

Not a beaver was to be seen, however. The wary animals had dived out of sight at hearing the boys approach.

"Fearless Bear once told me," remarked Raven Wing, "that hunters rarely see beavers building a dam. He says that they build at night and that it is no easy matter for a hunter to watch them."

"The musquash is easier to hunt," said Hawk Eye. "But he is less than half the size of the beaver; besides, his pelt is not so valuable."

"I've seen a beaver caught that weighed almost eighty pounds," said Raven Wing. "It had beautiful fur and a tail as big as a musquash."

"No fur on its tail," laughed Hawk Eye. "It's covered with rough scales. Beaver uses it to scull its way through the water."

"I wish the dam were larger," said Raven Wing. "Big dam, many beavers."

"There are plenty of beavers here," said Hawk Eye. "Enough for you and me unless some hunter comes across it before another snow."

As Raven Wing stepped off the dam and walked upstream along the bank, he said; "Fearless Bear told the hunters one night when I was in his lodge, that he had seen a beaver dam near a great body of water that measured two hundred and sixty feet long and six feet high."

"Might not have been so many beavers at work on it," said Hawk Eye. "Probably it took a long time to build it."

As the boys strolled along they noted the number of stumps which were all that remained of the trees which the beavers had cut down and divided into short lengths, such as could be carried by mouth when building the dam.

"Sharp teeth to cut these trees," remarked Raven Wing. "Some of these stumps are two feet thick."

"Did Fearless Bear tell you how the beaver works?" asked Hawk Eye.

"He supports himself by his tail when he rears on his hind legs to cut down a tree," answered Raven Wing. "With his teeth he cuts the wood as neatly as a hunter cuts it with his hatchet. No nibbling like a mouse," went on Raven Wing, "he makes a neat job, and can even make the tree fall in the direction he wishes."

"What else did Fearless Bear say?" asked Hawk Eye.

"When the beaver has cut the tree into short lengths he drags the cuttings to the place where he is to build the dam. He brings the branches, too, in his mouth and rolls stones along the shore to pile on them and hold them in place. At first the dam is rough and loose, but the beavers keep constantly at work, smoothing and pressing it down and stopping all the gaps with clay and pebbles from the bank. As time goes on it becomes overgrown with grass and bushes and looks as if it were a natural bank, just like this one," said Raven Wing.

"After a freshet, beaver must make repairs," remarked Hawk Eye.

"Fearless Bear told me he once made holes in a dam and during the night watched the beavers patch up the damaged places," laughed Raven Wing.

"I wouldn't care to be a beaver," said Hawk Eye. "It must be tiresome to live under the ice roof of a pond. I've noticed how the beavers sport and play when the ice breaks up."

Raven Wing turned on his heel and pointed to a beaver lodge. It stood not far from the bank, its roof above the water line. Both boys were well aware that the beaver builds the doorway to his lodge well below the freezing line. As they both stood looking at the deserted lodge, Raven Wing said; "Beaver often has two openings down deep in the water. Through these hidden entrances he drags branches and pieces of bark up to his dining room, which being above the water line, is dry and comfortable."

"Come," said Hawk Eye. "Let us go back to our canoes now. We have seen enough for today."

As they strode toward the Minnesota River, Raven Wing said; "I shall trade some of my pelts for steel traps. With these we can catch the beaver more easily than by spears."

"I will, too," said Hawk Eye.

"We will not have to bait the traps," went on Raven Wing. "Fearless Bear tells me to merely rub them with some odor or essence of which the animals are fond."

"That will be easy," grinned Hawk Eye.

Presently they rounded a bend in the little stream and came to the spot where they had beached their canoes. To their dismay they found that they had disappeared.