Books with author Enos A. Mills

This was Enos A. Mills' first major book, originally published by Houghton Mifflin. By 1909 he had climbed Long's Peak 257 times, and this book includes one of his most memorable trips to the top with little Harriet Peters. He also tells of his days as a Colorado Snow Observer, a canine argument between his dog Scotch and a pack of cunning coyotes, and a tale of two prospectors besieged in their cabin by three black bears. Fourteen stories round out this entertaining book. “Extraordinary interest attaches to his narratives of exciting adventure with snow slides, wild beasts and wild weather. He communicates to the reader something of his own sense of the beauties of the mountains and the delight of tramping among them.” Philadelphia Press "The book is one which lovers of Nature should read; one which all who know the majesty of the continental divide will read with interest. Mr. Mills knows his subject as well as any writer in the country. There is not an uninteresting page between the covers”. Springfield (Mass.) Republican “This book will be read with vast pleasure by innumerable nature-lovers who have lacked Mr. Mills’s rare opportunities for most intimate association with Dame Nature in all her moods. It gives a clearer idea of the Rockies, their trees, flowers, plant life, birds, and beasts that may be gleaned from any other volume of its kind”. Lincoln (Neb) Star “The fourteen essays in ‘Wild Life on the Rockies’ contain personal adventures, observations of nature, of trees and animals, told in a peculiarly ingenuous, simple manner that is extremely attractive. Mr. Mills conveys the spirit of the mountains to his readers.” New York Sun “With the publication of this book Mr. Mills takes a place in the front rank of American nature writers. It is the outcome of the demands of thousands of his hearers that the personal experiences woven into his talks be put into permanent form. It is a book by a nature-lover of genuine enthusiasm, based on actual experiences in the fascinating region that he knows and loves. His text is as simple and straightforward as his own personality. It is convincing. It is adequate. He is equally at home in the technical and in the descriptive, and he tells a story well. Altogether, it is one of the most informing, entertaining, and fascinating nature books that one has seen in many a day.” The Chicago Inter-Ocean “Mr. Mills has the faculty of making converts. He is a kind of evangelist of the wilderness, and when he preaches the gospel of the wilds you are convinced of the sincerity of its divine invitation. His book has the same convincing and fascinating quality as his lectures. The illustrations are exceptionally fine.” St. Paul Dispatch

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The beaver often does a large amount of work in a short time. A small dam may be built up in a few nights, or a number of trees felled, or possibly a long burrow or tunnel clawed in the earth during a brief period. In most cases, however, beaver works of magnitude are monuments of old days, and have required a long time to construct, being probably the work of more than one generation. It is rare for a large dam or canal to be constructed in one season. A thousand feet of dam is the accumulated work of years. An aged beaver may have lived all his life in one locality, born in the house in which his parents were born, and he might rise upon the thousand-foot dam which held his pond and say, “My grandparents half a dozen centuries ago commenced this dam, and I do not know which one of my ancestors completed it.”Although the beaver is a tireless and an effective worker, he does not work unless there is need to do so. Usually his summer is a rambling vacation spent away from home. His longest period of labor is during September and October, when the harvest is gathered and general preparations made for the long winter. Baby beavers take part in the harvest-getting, though probably without accomplishing very much. During most winters he has weeks of routine in the house and ponds with nothing urgent to do except sleep and eat.He works not only tooth and nail, but tooth and tail. The tail is one of the most conspicuous organs of the beaver. Volumes have been written concerning it. It is nearly flat, is black in color, and is a convenient and much-used appendage. It serves for a rudder, a stool, a prop, a scull, and a signal club. It may be used for a trowel, but I have never seen it so used. It serves one purpose that apparently has not been discussed in print; on a few occasions I have seen a beaver carry a small daub of mud or some sticks clasped between the tail and the belly. It gives this awkward animal increased awkwardness and even an uncouth appearance to see him humped up, with tail tucked between his legs, in order to clasp something between it and his belly.He is accomplished in the use of arms and hands. With hands he is able to hold sticks and handle them with great dexterity. Like any clawing animal he uses his hands or fore paws, to dig holes or tunnels and to excavate burrows and water-basins. His hind feet are the chief propelling power in swimming, although the tail, which may be turned almost on edge and is capable of diagonal movement, is sometimes brought into play as a scull when the beaver is at his swiftest. In the water beaver move about freely and apparently with the greatest enjoyment. They are delightfully swift and agile swimmers, in decided contrast with their awkward slowness upon the ground. They can swim two hundred yards under water without once coming to the surface, and have the ability to remain under water from five to ten minutes. On one occasion a beaver remained under water longer than eleven minutes, and came to the top none the worse, apparently, for this long period of suspended breathing.It is in standing erect that the beaver is at his best. In this attitude the awkwardness and the dull appearance of all-fours are absent, and he is a statue of alertness. With feet parallel and in line, tail at right angles to the body and resting horizontally on the ground, and hands held against the breast, he has the happy and childish eagerness of a standing chipmunk, and the alert and capable attitude of an erect and listening grizzly bear.In Beaver World, The Beaver Dam, Transportation Facilities, The Beaver’s Engineering, Beaver Pioneers, Beaver Ponds, Aspens cut by Beaver

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Excerpt:This book is the result of beaver studies which cover a period of twenty-seven years. During these years I have rambled through every State in the Union and visited Mexico, Canada, and Alaska. In the course of these rambles notice was taken of trees, birds, flowers, glaciers, and bears, and studious attention devoted to the beaver. No opportunity for beaver study was missed, and many a long journey was made for the purpose of investigating the conditions in live colonies or in making measurements in the ruins of old ones. These investigations were made during every season of the year, and often a week was spent in one colony. I have seen beaver at work scores of times, and on a few occasions dozens at one time.Beaver have been my neighbors since I was a boy. At any time during the past twenty-five years I could go from my cabin on the slope of Long’s Peak, Colorado, to a number of colonies within fifteen minutes. Studies were carried on in these near-by colonies in spring, summer, autumn, and winter.