| > | | | | of "Beaver Pond", my great-grand-uncle discovered |
| The thrill of finding wild things near civilization when | | | | many Indian relics, arrow-heads, hammer-stones, and |
| most of their kind has been driven far away by it | | | | ax-heads and also a very unusual stone anvil. Mother |
| comes seldom to Nature lovers. One can easily | | | | used to follow the plough furrow to pick these up. The |
| understand the surprise of the hunters who, several | | | | old records of New Amsterdam (New York City |
| years ago, bagged four moose within ten miles of | | | | under the Dutch) show that the Ackkinkas-hacky |
| Ottawa, Canada's capital; but imagine the joy of finding | | | | Indians traded beaver pelts extensively with the |
| a large beaver colony house within twenty miles of | | | | Hollanders, so that the reaches of the Hackensack |
| Broadway and 42nd Street! The thrill of finding wild | | | | River must have harbored many of the animals then. |
| things near civilization when most of their kind has | | | | But no other accounts of beaver appear from the late |
| been driven far away by it comes seldom to Nature | | | | 1600's to the present. The newly found creatures |
| lovers. One can easily understand the surprise of the | | | | seem to have come to stay, having built a large hut of |
| hunters who, several years ago, bagged four moose | | | | reeds, sticks, mud, leaves and black ditt right in the |
| within ten miles of Ottawa, Canada's capital; but | | | | edge of the running brook where they can cruise up |
| imagine the joy of finding a large beaver colony house | | | | and down stream to feeding growths. They also have |
| within twenty miles of Broadway and 42nd Street! | | | | dug a canal about one foot across in a straight line up |
| Charles Livingston Bull, the well-known illustrator of | | | | into the dry ground. They doubtless use this in going |
| wildlife subjects, and Irving Krump, author of juvenile | | | | back and forth to the young birches on the higher |
| stories, made this discovery. It is on a small running | | | | ground. |
| brook surrounded by marshes, just over the hill west | | | | There is little to explain how this colony came to New |
| of the old town of Oradell, New Jersey. As near as | | | | Jersey. Perhaps they migrated down from the |
| the writer can discover, it is the only beaver group to | | | | Adirondacks, or perhaps from the Bear Mountain |
| be reported in this locality during the last two centuries. | | | | preserves where the engineers have been having |
| As a boy, I used to go fishing in and skating on a | | | | considerable trouble with these persistent water |
| slough just off the Hackensack River which has | | | | workers through their building dams that the park |
| always been called "Beaver Pond". | | | | officials do not want, or burrowing under dams where |
| Tradition has it, according to my great-grand-uncle, that | | | | the park officials do want them. However, there they |
| beavers were plentiful there before the Indians were | | | | are and welcome, too. |
| driven out. While ploughing in that field, just off the edge | | | | |