256 MAMMALIA. 



the southern part of Franklin county." It is to be earnestly hoped 

 that the hunters who frequent that part of the Wilderness will 

 spare no pains to protect these animals from molestation. 



No animal has figured more prominently in the affairs of any 

 nation than has the Beaver in the early history of the " New 

 World." Its influence on the exploration, colonization, and settle- 

 ment of this country was very great. The trade in its peltries 

 proved a source of competition and strife, not only among the local 

 merchants, but also between the several colonies, disputes over the 

 boundaries having frequently arisen from this cause alone. In- 

 deed, on more than one occasion, jealousy of the Beaver trade led 

 to serious difficulties in the struggle for supremacy between the 

 three rival powers the Dutch, English, and French. 



The Provincial Seal of New Netherland was a Beaver resting 

 on a shield, encircled by the words " Sigilluiu Novi Belgii" 



In the year 1671, there appeared in Amsterdam a paper en- 

 titled, " De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld : of Beschryving van 

 America en't Zuiclland : door Arnoldus Montanus." Much of this 

 account is devoted to the natural history of the country, and it 

 contains some extraordinary tales concerning the animals found 

 there. The author's remarks upon the Beaver run as follows : 

 " But in addition to other wild animals New Netherland furnishes, 

 according to the occular evidence of Adriacn van dcr Donk, full 

 eighty thousand beavers a year. Pliny relates how these animals 

 castrate themselves, and leave these parts to the hunters, inasmuch 

 as they are much sought after, being an effectual remedy for mania, 

 retention of the afterbirth, amenorrhcea, dizziness, gout, lameness, 

 belly and tooth aches, dullness of vision, poisoning and rheuma- 

 tism. But Pliny commits a grave error ; for the Beavers have 

 very small testicles fastened in such a manner to the back bone 

 that they cannot remove them except with life. Moreover, they 

 live in the water and on land together in troops, in houses built of 

 timber over a running stream. The houses excite no common ad- 



