河狸奇闻

詹姆斯·珀灵 孙宝成（编译）

五月下旬麻烦就来了。在镇外大约三英里远的迦南公路附近，有一条排放溪水的排水渠，一群河狸在靠近排泄口的位置修建了一座水坝。水坝堵塞了流水，排水渠漫出的水淹没了两侧约50英尺的公路和几百英尺的田地。

斯坦利派出一支养路队，去夷平那座水坝。

河狸们重建了水坝。

养路队又把水坝豁开。

实际上，他们连续10天早晨都把水坝豁开，而河狸立刻在这10天的夜里重建了水坝。

在第11天，养路队的队长狠狠地咒骂着，把难题推给了镇长。镇长反过来又推给了当地的狩猎警察。

这位警察熟知河狸习性，在一天夜里悄悄溜过去，在水坝上披盖了一个浸透汽油的麻布口袋。（河狸专家都知道，这种动物根本无法忍受汽油的味道。）

早晨，人们发现口袋被巧妙地编进了水坝。

那天夜里，警察设置了三架钢制捕捉器。到了早晨，一个捕捉器是空的，另外两个被河狸偷走，用于支撑水坝。

警察埋怨州法律不准用火器猎取河狸，只好取回捕捉器，又架设妥当，他架设了一次又一次……可是，每天夜里河狸都把捕捉器偷走。

斯坦利镇长征招另外的队伍。他给警察局长打电话。那些河狸违反了州里有关阻碍自然水道的法律。“为什么你不去维护这项法律呢？”斯坦利问道，“你是警察局长，应该驱逐它们，撵走他们，逮捕他们。行动起来吧。”

过了三个上午，警察局长骄傲地宣称水坝完蛋了。他说，清晨两点钟，他和一名持证的炸药使用者已经把水坝炸得粉碎。斯坦利说等自己亲眼看到时才会相信。

他们驱车赶往排水渠，发现一道新的水坝已经建成了一半。他们还发现，炸药抛起的泥浆和碎屑阻塞了公路，动用了四名消防员和一辆消防车，还有三个警察，花费了一个半小时用水管冲洗干净这些乱七八糟的东西。

斯坦利说，或许他们应该召集工程兵部队。但是，警察局长坚定不移地相信炸药。他发起了全面进攻。时光从6月进入7月，一夜又一夜，爆破的声音振荡着夏日的空气——用小剂量炸药在水坝上撕开口子，不让水坝完整地维持到天亮。等负责扫尾工程的消防队员清晨出现在现场之前，河狸们总是设法把炸开的洞塞紧。

终于，河狸们厌倦了这种胡闹行为，把它们的水坝移到排水渠“内部”——若想在这里爆破水坝，势必要破坏公路。

斯坦利和手下的参谋部人员开会讨论战局，大家赞同实施新的战略。随后，他们灵机一动有了主意。他们进行推论：如果我们用人工拆走水坝的每一根树枝，河狸就被迫去寻找新的建筑材料，顶替我们拿开的那些东西。然后，我们可以沿着它们的河道放置陷笼，捉住它们——或许吧。

全体人员一致通过了这个计划。而且，此项行动奏效了。

7月30日，斯坦利镇长得以宣布：河狸群已经被捕获，移送到偏远的荒郊野外。汉普登镇上的人们欢呼庆祝——直到10月中旬，有人看到一群年轻的河狸在捕获老河狸的水域中游泳。

by James Poling

The gnawing began in late May. About three miles outside of town a colony of beavers built a dam near the mouth of a culvert that carries a stream under Canaan Road. Some 50 feet of roadway and several hundred feet of land on each side of the culvert were flooded. Stanley sent a road crew out to level the dam. The beavers rebuilt it. The crew tore it apart again. In fact, they tore it apart for ten mornings in a row -- and for ten straight nights the beavers rebuilt it.

On the eleventh day, the foreman of the crew said to-hell-with-it and tossed the problem back to the town manager. He, in turn, tossed it on to the local game warden. The warden, steeped in beaver lore, crept out one night and draped a gasoline-soaked burlap bag over the dam. (Any beaver expert will tell you the creatures just can't abide gasoline fumes.)

In the morning the bag was found artistically woven into the dam.

The warden set out three steel traps that night. In the morning one was empty. The other two had been stolen by the beavers and used to buttress the dam. The warden, cussing the state law against hunting beavers with firearms, got his traps back and set them out again... and again... and again... And every night the beavers stole them.

Town manager Stanley enlisted additional troops. He telephoned his police chief. Those beavers were breaking a state law against blocking up a natural watercourse. "Why aren't you out there upholding the law?" Stanley asked. "You're the police chief. So evict 'em. Dispossess them. Arrest them. Do something."

Three mornings later, the police chief proudly announced the end of the dam. At 2:00 A.M., he said, he and a licensed dynamiter had blown it to smithereens. Stanley said he'd believe it when he saw it.

They drove out to the culvert and found a new dam already half-built. They also found the highway so choked with mud and debris thrown up by the dynamite that it took four firemen, the fire department's 500-gallon pumper, and three constables an hour and a half to hose away the mess.

Stanley said maybe they should call in the Army Corps of Engineers. But the police chief's faith in explosives was unshaken. He launched an all-out campaign. Night after night, as June drifted into July, the sound of blasting shattered the summer air -- and tore holes in the dam that never saw the full light of day. The beavers always managed to have the holes plugged by the time the fire department appeared on the scene for its morning mop-up.

In time, the beavers tired of this nonsense and moved their dam "inside" the culvert -- where it couldn't be blown up without destroying the road too.

Stanley and his general staff held a council of war and agreed that fresh strategy was called for. Then they came up with an inspired idea. If we remove every branch of the dam by hand, they reasoned, we'll force the beavers to go in search of new building material to replace what we've taken. Then we can place box traps along their runways and capture them -- maybe.

The plan was unanimously approved. Moreover it worked. On July 30, town manager Stanley was able to announce that the beaver colony had been trapped and removed to a remote wilderness area. And there was great rejoicing in Hampden -- until the middle of October, that is, when a colony of young beavers was spotted swimming in the same waters from which its elders had recently been snatched."