"There's more water here than there seems to be," admitted Lew. "There's
so much marsh-grass and so many water-plants it fooled me."

Cautiously they waded about. Suddenly Lew plunged forward, and only by
grasping a bush did he save himself from getting completely wet. As it
was, he found himself standing upright in three feet of water. After he
recovered from his surprise, he felt about with his feet.

"This is their canal all right enough," he said. "It's very narrow, but it
will float anything that grows in this forest."

He scrambled out and the two boys made their way back to dry ground. "How
are you going to get dry?" asked Charley. "I don't want to make a fire
unless it is absolutely necessary."

"Never mind about me. I'll dry off soon enough. Let's find their dam."

They made their way toward the run and soon discovered the dam. It was a
great pile of branches, stones, moss, grass, mud, bark, etc., that had
been built across the stream and extended for rods on either side. It
looked very solid, yet the water did not pour over it, but filtered
through it.

"Think of all the work it took to make that," cried Lew. "Why, every
stick in it had to be gnawed down and floated here, and all the bark and
grass and roots had to be pulled and brought here and the stones
collected. And say! How in the world do you suppose they ever handled
those stones? And how do you suppose they ever anchored the stuff when
they began building? I should think the current would have swept
everything away at first. That's a pretty swift stream."