The industrious3 beaver builds a permanent home, keeps it clean and in repair, and beside it stores food supplies for winter. He takes thought for the morrow. These and other commendable4 characteristics give him a place of honor among the horde5 of homeless, hand-to-mouth folk of the wild. His picturesque6 works add a charm to nature and are helpful to mankind. His dams and ponds have saved vast[Pg 20] areas of soil, have checked many a flood, and helped to equalize stream-flow.
MT. MEEKER7 MT. MEEKER
A pile of granite8 boulders10 on the edge of the pond stood several feet above the water-level, and from the top of these the entire colony and its operations could be seen. On these I spent days observing and enjoying the autumnal activities of Beaverdom.
It was the busiest time of the year for these industrious folk. General and extensive preparations were now being made for the long winter amid the mountain snows. A harvest of scores of trees was being gathered, and work on a new house was in progress, while the old houses were receiving repairs. It was a serene11 autumn day when I came into the picturesque village of these primitive12 people. The aspens were golden, the willows14 rusty15, the grass tanned, and the pines were purring in the easy air.
The colony-site was in a small basin amid morainal débris at an altitude of nine thousand feet above the sea-level. I at once christened it the Moraine Colony. The scene was utterly16 wild. Peaks of crags and snow rose steeply and [Pg 21] high above; all around crowded a dense17 evergreen18 forest of pine and spruce. A few small swamps reposed20 in this forest, while here and there in it bristled21 several gigantic windrows of boulders. A ragged22 belt of aspens surrounded the several ponds and separated the pines and spruces from the fringe of water-loving willows along the shores. There were three large ponds in succession and below these a number of smaller ones. The dams that formed the large ponds were willow13-grown, earthy structures about four feet in height, and all sagged23 down stream. The houses were grouped in the middle pond, the largest one, the dam of which was more than three hundred feet long. Three of these lake dwellings24 stood near the upper margin25, close to where the brook26 poured in. The other five were clustered by the outlet27, just below which a small willow-grown, boulder9-dotted island lay between the divided waters of the stream.
A number of beavers28 were busy gnawing30 down aspens, while others cut the felled ones into sections, pushed and rolled the sections[Pg 22] into the water, and then floated them to the harvest piles, one of which was being made beside each house. Some were quietly at work spreading a coat of mud on the outside of each house. This would freeze and defy the tooth and claw of the hungriest or the strongest predaceous enemy. Four beavers were leisurely31 lengthening32 and repairing a dam. A few worked singly, but most of them were in groups. All worked quietly and with apparent deliberation, but all were in motion, so that it was a busy scene. "To work like a beaver!" What a stirring exhibition of beaver industry and forethought I viewed from my boulder-pile!
At times upward of forty of them were in sight. Though there was a general co?peration, yet each one appeared to do his part without orders or direction. Time and again a group of workers completed a task and without pause silently moved off and began another. Everything appeared to go on mechanically. It produced a strange feeling to see so many workers doing so many kinds of work effectively and automatically. Again and again I listened for[Pg 23] the superintendent's voice; constantly I watched to see the overseer move among them; but I listened and watched in vain. Yet I feel that some of the patriarchal fellows must have carried a general plan of the work, and that during its progress orders and directions that I could not comprehend were given from time to time.
The work was at its height a little before midday. Nowadays it is rare for a beaver to work in daylight. Men and guns have prevented daylight workers from leaving descendants. These not only worked but played by day. One morning for more than an hour there was a general frolic, in which the entire population appeared to take part. They raced, dived, crowded in general mix-ups, whacked33 the water with their tails, wrestled34, and dived again. There were two or three play-centres, but the play went on without intermission, and as their position constantly changed, the merrymakers splashed water all over the main pond before they calmed down and in silence returned to work. I gave most attention to the harvesters, who felled the aspens and moved them, bodily or in sections,[Pg 24] by land and water to the harvest piles. One tree on the shore of the pond which was felled into the water was eight inches in diameter and fifteen feet high. Without having even a limb cut off, it was floated to the nearest harvest pile. Another, about the same size, which was procured35 some fifty feet from the water, was cut into four sections and its branches removed; then a single beaver would take a branch in his teeth, drag it to the water, and swim with it to a harvest pile. But four beavers united to transport the largest section to the water. They pushed with fore2 paws, with breasts, and with hips36. Plainly it was too heavy for them. They paused. "Now they will go for help," I said to myself, "and I shall find out who the boss is." But to my astonishment37 one of them began to gnaw29 the piece in two, and two more began to clear a narrow way to the water, while the fourth set himself to cutting down another aspen. Good roads and open waterways are the rule, and perhaps the necessary rule, of beaver colonies.
I was impatient to have a close view of a[Pg 25] beaver cutting down a tree, and at last one came prospecting38 near where I was hidden. After a prolonged period of repose19 and possibly reflection he rose, gazed into the treetop, as though to see if it were entangled39, then put his fore paws against the tree, spread his hind40 legs, sat back on his extended tail, and took a bite from the trunk. Everything in his actions suggested that his only intention was to devour41 the tree deliberately42. He did most of the cutting from one side. Occasionally he pulled out a chip by leaning backward; sometimes he pried43 it out by tilting44 his head to the horizontal, forcing his lower front teeth behind it, then splitting it out by using his jaws45 as a lever. He was a trifle more than an hour in felling a four-inch tree; just before it fell he thudded the ground a few times with his tail and ran away.
I became deeply interested in this colony, which was situated46 within two miles of my cabin, and its nearness enabled me to be a frequent visitor and to follow closely its fortunes and misfortunes. About the hut-filled pond I lingered when it was covered with winter's[Pg 26] white, when fringed with the gentian's blue, and while decked with the pond-lily's yellow glory.
Ruin befell it before my first visit ended. One morning, while watching from the boulder-pile, I noticed an occasional flake47 of ash dropping into the pond. Soon smoke scented48 the air, then came the awful and subdued49 roar of a forest fire. I fled, and from above the timber-line watched the storm-cloud of black smoke sweep furiously forward, bursting and closing to the terrible leaps of red and tattered50 flames. Before noon several thousand acres of forest were dead, all leaves and twigs51 were in ashes, all tree-trunks blistered52 and blackened.
The Moraine Colony was closely embowered in a pitchy forest. For a time the houses in the water must have been wrapped in flames of smelter heat. Could these mud houses stand this? The beavers themselves I knew would escape by sinking under the water. Next morning I went through the hot, smoky area and found every house cracked and crumbling53; not one was inhabitable. Most serious of all was the[Pg 27] total loss of the uncut food supply, when harvesting for winter had only begun.
Would these energetic people starve at home or would they try to find refuge in some other colony? Would they endeavor to find a grove54 that the fire had missed and there start anew? The intense heat had consumed almost every fibrous thing above the surface. The piles of garnered55 green aspen were charred56 to the water-line; all that remained of willow thickets57 and aspen groves58 were thousands of blackened pickets59 and points, acres of coarse charcoal60 stubble. It was a dreary61, starving outlook for my furred friends.
I left the scene to explore the entire burned area. After wandering for hours amid ashes and charcoal, seeing here and there the seared carcass of a deer or some other wild animal, I came upon a beaver colony that had escaped the fire. It was in the midst of several acres of swampy62 ground that was covered with fire-resisting willows and aspens. The surrounding pine forest was not dense and the heat it produced in burning did no damage to the scattered63 beaver houses.[Pg 28]
From the top of a granite crag I surveyed the green scene of life and the surrounding sweep of desolation. Here and there a sodden64 log smouldered in the ashen65 distance and supported a tower of smoke in the still air. A few miles to the east, among the scattered trees of a rocky summit, the fire was burning itself out: to the west the sun was sinking behind crags and snow; near-by, on a blackened limb, a south-bound robin66 chattered67 volubly but hopelessly.
While I was listening, thinking, and watching, a mountain lion appeared and leaped lightly upon a block of granite. He was on my right, about one hundred feet away and about an equal distance from the shore of the nearest pond. He was interested in the approach of something. With a nervous switching of his tail he peered eagerly forward over the crown of the ridge68 just before him, and then crouched69 tensely and expectantly upon his rock.
A pine tree that had escaped the fire screened the place toward which the lion looked and where something evidently was approaching. While I was trying to discover what it could be,[Pg 29] a coyote trotted70 into view. Without catching71 sight of the near-by lion, he suddenly stopped and fixed72 his gaze upon the point that so interested the crouching73 beast. The mystery was solved when thirty or forty beavers came hurrying into view. They had come from the ruined Moraine Colony.
I thought to myself that the coyote, stuffed as he must be with the seared flesh of fire-roasted victims, would not attack them; but a lion wants a fresh kill for every meal, and so I watched the movements of the latter. He adjusted his feet a trifle and made ready to spring. The beavers were getting close; but just as I was about to shout to frighten him the coyote leaped among them and began killing74.
In the excitement of getting off the crag I narrowly escaped breaking my neck. Once on the ground I ran for the coyote, shouting wildly to frighten him off; but he was so intent upon killing that a violent kick in the ribs75 first made him aware of my presence. In anger and excitement he leaped at me with ugly teeth as he fled. The lion had disappeared, and by this time the[Pg 30] beavers in the front ranks were jumping into the pond, while the others were awkwardly speeding down the slope. The coyote had killed three. If beavers have a language, surely that night the refugees related to their hospitable76 neighbors some thrilling experiences.
The next morning I returned to the Moraine Colony over the route followed by the refugees. Leaving their fire-ruined homes, they had followed the stream that issued from their ponds. In places the channel was so clogged78 with fire wreckage79 that they had followed alongside the water rather than in it, as is their wont80. At one place they had hurriedly taken refuge in the stream. Coyote tracks in the scattered ashes explained this. But after going a short distance they had climbed from the water and again traveled the ashy earth.
Beavers, like fish, commonly follow water routes, but in times of emergency or in moments of audacity81 they will journey overland. To have followed this stream down to its first tributary82, then up this to where the colony in which they found refuge was situated, would have required[Pg 31] four miles of travel. Overland it was less than a mile. After following the stream for some distance, at just the right place they turned off, left the stream, and dared the overland dangers. How did they know the situation of the colony in the willows, or that it had escaped fire, and how could they have known the shortest, best way to it?
The morning after the arrival of the refugees, work was begun on two new houses and a dam, which was about sixty feet in length and built across a grassy83 open. Green cuttings of willow, aspen, and alder84 were used in its construction. Not a single stone or a handful of mud was used. When completed it appeared like a windrow of freshly raked shrubs85. It was almost straight, but sagged a trifle downstream. Though the water filtered freely through, it flooded the flat above. As the two new houses could not shelter all the refugees, it is probable that some of them were sheltered in bank tunnels, while room for others may have been found in the old houses.
That winter the colony was raided by some[Pg 32] trappers; more than one hundred pelts86 were secured, and the colony was left in ruins and almost depopulated.
The Moraine Colony site was deserted87 for a long time. Eight years after the fire I returned to examine it. The willow growth about the ruins was almost as thrifty88 as when the fire came. A growth of aspen taller than one's head clung to the old shore-lines, while a close seedling89 growth of lodge-pole pine throve in the ashes of the old forest. One low mound90, merry with blooming columbine, was the only house ruin to be seen.
The ponds were empty and every dam was broken. The stream, in rushing unobstructed through the ruins, had eroded91 deeply. This erosion revealed the records of ages, and showed that the old main dam had been built on the top of an older dam and a sediment92-filled pond. The second dam was on top of an older one still. In the sediment of the oldest—the bottom pond—I found a spear-head, two charred logs, and the skull93 of a buffalo94. Colonies of beaver, as well as those of men, are often found upon[Pg 33] sites that have a tragic95 history. Beavers, with Omar, might say,—
"When you and I behind the veil are past,
Oh but the long long while the world shall last."
The next summer, 1893, the Moraine site was resettled. During the first season the colonists96 put in their time repairing dams and were content to live in holes. In autumn they gathered no harvest, and no trace of them could be found after the snow; so it is likely that they had returned to winter in the colony whence they had come. But early in the next spring there were reinforced numbers of them at work establishing a permanent settlement. Three dams were repaired, and in the autumn many of the golden leaves that fell found lodgment in the fresh plaster of two new houses.
Most beaver dams are built on the installment97 plan,—are the result of growth. As the pond fills with sediment, and the water becomes shallower, the dam is built higher and, where conditions require it, longer; or, as is often the case, it may be raised and lengthened98 for the purpose of raising or backing water to the trees[Pg 34] that are next to be harvested. The dams are made of sticks, small trees, sods, mud, stones, coal, grass, roots,—that is, combinations of these. The same may be said of the houses. For either house or dam the most convenient material is likely to be used. But this is not always the case; for the situation of the house, or what the dam may have to endure, evidently is sometimes considered, and apparently99 that kind of material is used that will best meet all the requirements.
Most beaver dams are so situated that they are destined100 earlier or later to accumulate sediment, trash, and fallen leaves, and become earthy; then they will, of course, be planted by Nature with grass, shrubby101 willows, and even trees. I have seen many trees with birds' nests in them standing102 on a beaver dam; yet the original dam had been composed almost entirely103 of sticks or stones.
Why do beavers want or need ponds? They have very heavy bodies and extremely short legs. On land they are slow and awkward and in the greatest danger from their enemies,[Pg 35]—wolves, lions, bears, and wildcats; but they are excellent swimmers, and in water they easily elude104 their enemies, and through it they conveniently bring their harvests home. Water is necessary for their existence, and to have this at all times compels the construction of dams and ponds.
In the new Moraine Colony one of the houses was torn to pieces by some animal, probably a bear. This was before Thanksgiving. About midwinter a prospector105 left his tunnel a few miles away, came to the colony, and dynamited106 a house, and "got seven of them." Next year two houses were built on the ruins of the two just fallen. That year's harvest-home was broken by deadly attacks of enemies. In gathering107 the harvest the beavers showed a preference for some aspens that were growing in a moist place about one hundred feet from the water. Whether it was the size of these or their peculiar108 flavor that determined109 their election in preference to nearer ones, I could not determine. One day, while several beavers were cutting here, they were surprised by a mountain lion,[Pg 36] which leaped upon and killed one of the harvesters. The next day the lion surprised and killed another. Two or three days later a coyote killed one on the same blood-stained spot, and then overtook and killed two others as they fled for the water. I could not see these deadly attacks from the boulder-pile, but in each case the sight of flying beavers sent me rushing upon the scene, where I beheld110 the cause of their desperate retreat. But despite dangers they persisted until the last of these aspens was harvested. During the winter the bark was eaten from these, and the next season their clean wood was used in the walls of a new house.
One spring I several times visited a number of colonies while trying to determine the number of young brought forth111 at a birth. Six furry112 little fellows sunning themselves on top of their rude home were the first discovery; this was the twelfth of May. By the close of the month I had come in sight of many youngsters, and found the average number to be five. One mother proudly exhibited eight, while another, one who all winter had been harassed113 by trap[Pg 37]pers and who lived in a burrow114 on the bank, could display but one. In the Moraine Colony the three sets of youngsters numbered two, three, and five. Great times these had as they were growing up. They played over the house, and such fun they had nosing and pushing each other off a large boulder into the water! A thousand merry ripples116 they sent to the shore as they raced, wrestled, and dived in the pond, both in the sunshine and in the shadows of the willows along the shore.
The beaver has a rich birthright, though born in a windowless hut of mud. Close to the primitive place of his birth the wild folk of both woods and water meet and often mingle117; around it are the ever-changing, never-ending scenes and silences of the water or the shore. He grows up with the many-sided wild, playing amid the enameled118 flowers, the great boulders,—the Ice King's marbles,—and the fallen logs in the edge of the mysterious forest; learning to swim and slide; listening to the strong, harmonious119 stir of wind and water; living with the stars in the sky and the stars in the pond; beginning[Pg 38] serious life when brilliant clouds of color enrich the hills; helping120 to harvest the trees that wear the robes of gold, while the birds go by for the southland in the reflective autumn days. If Mother Nature should ever call me to live upon another planet I could wish that I might be born a beaver, to inhabit a house in the water.
A BEAVER HOUSE IN WINTER A BEAVER HOUSE IN WINTER
The autumn of the year when I watched the young beavers I had the pleasure of seeing some immigrants pass me en route for a new home in the Moraine Colony. Of course they may have been only visitors, or have come temporarily to assist in the harvesting; but I like to think of them as immigrants, and a number of things testified that immigrants they were. One evening I had long been lying on a boulder by the stream below the colony, waiting for a gift from the gods. It came. Out of the water within ten feet of me scrambled121 the most patriarchal, as well as the largest, beaver that I have ever seen. I wanted to take off my hat to him, I wanted to ask him to tell me the story of his life, but from long habit I simply lay still and watched and thought in silence. He was making a portage [Pg 39] round a cascade122. As he scrambled up over the rocks, I noticed that he had but two fingers on his right hand. He was followed, in single file, by four others; one of these was minus a finger on the left hand. The next morning I read that five immigrants had arrived in the Moraine Colony. They had registered their footprints in the muddy margin of the lower pond. Had an agent been sent to invite these colonists, or had they come out of their own adventurous123 spirit? The day following their arrival I trailed them backward in the hope of learning whence they came and why they had moved. They had traveled in the water most of the time; but in places they had come out on the bank to go round a waterfall or to avoid an obstruction124. Here and there I saw their tracks in the mud and traced them to a beaver settlement in which the houses and dams had been recently wrecked125. A near-by rancher told me that he had been "making it hot" for all beavers in his meadow. During the next two years I occasionally saw this patriarchal beaver or his tracks thereabout.
It is the custom among old male beavers to[Pg 40] idle away two or three months of each summer in exploring the neighboring brooks126 and streams. But they never fail to return in time for autumn activities. It thus becomes plain how, when an old colony needs to move, some one in it knows where to go and the route to follow.
I had enjoyed the ways of "our first engineers" for several years before it dawned upon me that their works might be useful to man and that the beaver might justly be called the first conservationist. One dry winter the stream through the Moraine Colony ran low and froze to the bottom, and the only trout127 in it that survived were those in the deep holes of these beaver ponds. Another demonstration128 of their usefulness came one gray day. The easy rain of two days ended in a heavy downpour and a deluge129 of water on the mountainside above. This mountain-slope was still barren from the forest fire. It had but little to absorb or delay the excess of water, which was speedily shed into the stream below. Flooding down the stream's channel came a roaring avalanche130 or waterslide, with a rubbish-filled front that was[Pg 41] five or six feet high. This expanded as it rolled into the pond and swept far out on the sides, while the front, greatly lowered, rushed over the dam. Much of this water was caught and temporarily detained in the ponds, and by the time it poured over the last dam its volume was greatly reduced and its speed checked. The ponds had broken the rush and prevented a flood.
Every beaver pond is a settling-basin that takes sediment and soil from the water that passes through it. If this soil were carried down it would not only be lost, but it would clog77 the deep waterway, the river channel. Deposited in the pond, it will in time become productive. During past ages the millions of beaver dams in the United States have spread soil over thousands of square miles and rendered them productive. Beavers prepared the way for numerous forests and meadows, for countless131 orchards132 and peaceful, productive valleys.
The Moraine colonists gathered an unusually large harvest during the autumn of 1909. Seven hundred and thirty-two sapling aspens and[Pg 42] several hundred willows were massed in the main pond by the largest house. This pile, which was mostly below the water-line, was three feet deep and one hundred and twenty-four feet in circumference133. Would a new house be built this fall? This unusually large harvest plainly told that either children or immigrants had increased the population of the colony. Of course, a hard winter may also have been expected.
No; they were not to build a new house, but the old house by the harvest pile was to be enlarged. One day, just as the evening shadow of Long's Peak had covered the pond, I peeped over a log on top of the dam to watch the work. The house was only forty feet distant. Not a ripple115 stirred among the inverted134 peaks and pines in the clear, shadow-enameled pond. A lone135 beaver rose quietly in the scene from the water near the house. Swimming noiselessly, he made a circuit of the pond. Then for a time, and without any apparent purpose, he swam back and forth over a short, straight course; he moved leisurely, and occasionally made a shal[Pg 43]low, quiet dive. He did not appear to be watching anything in particular or to have anything special on his mind. Yet his eyes may have been scouting136 for enemies and his mind may have been full of house plans. Finally he dived deeply, and the next I saw of him he was climbing up the side of the house addition with a pawful of mud.
By this time a number of beavers were swimming in the pond after the manner of the first one. Presently all began to work. The addition already stood more than two feet above the water-line. The top of this was crescent-shaped and was about seven feet long and half as wide. It was made mostly of mud, which was plentifully137 reinforced with willow cuttings and aspen sticks. For a time all the workers busied themselves in carrying mud and roots from the bottom of the pond and placing these on the slowly rising addition. Eleven were working at one time. By and by three swam ashore138, each in a different direction and each a few seconds apart. After a minute or two they returned from the shore, each carrying or trailing a long willow.[Pg 44] These were dragged to the top of the addition, laid down, and trampled139 in the mud. Meantime the mud-carriers kept steadily140 at their work; again willows were brought, but this time four beavers went, and, as before, each was independent of the others. I did not see how this work could go on without some one bossing the thing, but I failed to detect any beaver acting141 as overseer. While there was general co?peration, each acted independently most of the time and sometimes was apparently oblivious142 of the others. These beavers simply worked,—slowly, silently, and steadily; and they were still working away methodically and with dignified143 deliberation when darkness hid them.
Most beaver houses are conical and round of outline. This house originally was slightly elliptical and measured forty-one feet in circumference. After enlargement it was almost a flattened144 ellipse and measured sixty-three feet in circumference. Generally I have found that small beaver houses are round and large ones elliptical.
One of the last large interesting works of the Moraine Colony was the making of a new pond.[Pg 45] This was made alongside the main pond and about fifty feet distant from it. A low ridge separated the two. As it was nearly one hundred feet from the stream, a ditch or canal was dug from the stream, below the main pond, to fill it. The new pond was made for the purpose of reaching with a waterway an aspen grove on its farther shore.
The making of the dam showed more forethought than the getting of the water into the pond. With the exception of aspen, no dam-making material such as beavers commonly use was to be found. The population of the colony was now large, while aspen, the chief food-supply, was becoming scarce. Would the beavers see far enough ahead to realize this? Evidently they did; at any rate not a single precious aspen was used in making the dam. Close to the dam-site was a supply of young lodge-pole pines; but it is against the tradition of the beaver to cut green pines or spruces. Two of these lodge-poles were cut, but evidently these pitchy, smelly things were not to the beavers' taste and no more of them were used.[Pg 46]
Not far away were scores of fire-killed trees, both standing and fallen. "Surely," I said to myself, when two dead chunks145 had been dragged into place, "they are not going to use this dead timber?" A beaver avoids gnawing dead wood; it is slow work, and besides is very hard on the teeth. Most of these dead trees were inconveniently146 large, and were fire-hardened and full of sand-filled weather-cracks; but contrary to all my years of observation, they, after long, hard labor147, built an excellent dam from this material.
I have determined to do all I can to perpetuate148 the beaver, and I wish I could interest every man, woman, boy, and girl in the land to help in this. Beaver works are so picturesque and so useful to man that I trust this persistent149 practicer of conservation will not perish from the hills and mountains of our land. His growing scarcity150 is awakening151 some interest in him, and I hope and half believe that before many years every brook that is born on a great watershed152 will, as it goes swiftly, merrily singing down the[Pg 47] slopes toward the sea, pass through and be steadied in a poetic153 pond that is made and will be maintained by our patient, persistent, faithful friend the beaver.
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beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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meeker
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| adj.温顺的，驯服的( meek的比较级 ) | |
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8
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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9
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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22
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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23
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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24
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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25
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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27
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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28
beavers
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| 海狸( beaver的名词复数 )； 海狸皮毛； 棕灰色； 拼命工作的人 | |
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29
gnaw
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| v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨 | |
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30
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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31
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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32
lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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33
whacked
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| a.精疲力尽的 | |
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34
wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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35
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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36
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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37
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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38
prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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39
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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41
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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42
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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43
pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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44
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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45
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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46
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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47
flake
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| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
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48
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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49
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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50
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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51
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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52
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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53
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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54
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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55
garnered
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| v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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57
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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58
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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59
pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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60
charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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61
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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62
swampy
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| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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63
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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64
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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65
ashen
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| adj.灰的 | |
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66
robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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67
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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68
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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69
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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71
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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72
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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73
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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74
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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75
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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76
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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77
clog
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| vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐 | |
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78
clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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79
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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80
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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81
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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82
tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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83
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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84
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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85
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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86
pelts
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| n. 皮毛，投掷, 疾行 vt. 剥去皮毛，（连续）投掷 vi. 猛击，大步走 | |
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87
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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88
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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89
seedling
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| n.秧苗，树苗 | |
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90
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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91
eroded
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| adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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92
sediment
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| n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物) | |
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93
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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94
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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95
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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96
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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97
installment
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| n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期 | |
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98
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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100
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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101
shrubby
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| adj.灌木的，灌木一般的，灌木繁茂著的 | |
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102
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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103
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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104
elude
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| v.躲避，困惑 | |
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105
prospector
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| n.探矿者 | |
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106
dynamited
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| v.（尤指用于采矿的）甘油炸药( dynamite的过去式和过去分词 )；会引起轰动的人[事物] | |
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107
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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108
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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109
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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110
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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111
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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112
furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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113
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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114
burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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115
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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116
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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117
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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118
enameled
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| 涂瓷釉于，给…上瓷漆，给…上彩饰( enamel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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119
harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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120
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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121
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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122
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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123
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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124
obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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125
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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126
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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127
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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128
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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129
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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130
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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131
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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132
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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133
circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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134
inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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136
scouting
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| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
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137
plentifully
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| adv. 许多地，丰饶地 | |
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138
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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139
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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140
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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141
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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142
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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143
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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144
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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145
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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146
inconveniently
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| ad.不方便地 | |
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147
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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148
perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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149
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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150
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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151
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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152
watershed
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| n.转折点，分水岭，分界线 | |
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153
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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