The incident had, moreover, this pleasing significance: It showed that these beavers were unsophisticated, so had not been hunted.
Fifty pelts might easily be taken from these ponds.
The trappers reset the traps; then dividing the load, sought a remote place to camp, for it does not do to light a fire near your beaver pond.
One hundred and fifty pounds of beaver, in addition, to their packs, was not a load to be taken miles away; within half a mile on a lower level they selected a warm place, made a fire, and skinned their catch.

The bodies they opened and hung in a tree with a view to future use, but the pelts and tails they carried on.
They made a long, hard tramp that day, baiting all the traps and reached home late in the night..