Of course most people
of the Northwest have seen beaver villages of various sizes, but that
one was different, and should be called a city. There were elevated
roads laid off in squares that run with great precision from one
little house to the other. There are dozens and dozens of
houses - perhaps a hundred - in the marshy lake, and the amount of
intelligence and cunning the little animals have shown in the
construction of their houses and elevated roads is worth studying.
They are certainly fine engineers.
We take the road home from here, but go a much more direct route,
which will be by ambulance all the way to Fort Ellis, instead of going
by the cars from Mammoth Hot Springs. I am awfully glad of this, as it
will make the trip one day longer, and take us over a road that is new
to us, although it is the direct route from Ellis to the Park through
Rocky Canon.
FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY,
November, 1884.
ONLY a few days more, and then we will be off for the East! It is over
seven years since we started from Corinne on that long march north,
and I never dreamed at that time that I would remain right in this
territory, until a splendid railroad would be built to us from another
direction to take us out of it.
