84 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



"The beaver is a most prolific creature, and, if left undis- 

 turbed, the progeny of a single couple would, in a few years, 

 stock a large extent of country. The young beavers remain in 

 the same house as the parents until they are a year old, when they 

 strike off in couples for themselves, and either build a new house 

 on the same pond or select a site on some other creek, and there 

 erect a dam and house. In a few weeks the dry swamp or marsh 

 is transformed into a lake, and the stock of provisions, consisting 

 of a pile of saplings and brush, for winter use, is laid up beside, 

 the house, only a few of the limbs showing above the surface of 

 the water. In the interior of the house a dry, warm nest is made, 

 where they remain all winter. Going out at the call of hunger to 

 the pile of provisions, they drag a piece up out of the water and 

 eat the bark, which, together with the roots of aquatic plants, is 

 their only food, thrusting the pole back again into the water. 

 Here they remain until the long, warm days of spring sotten the 

 ice, when, cutting a hole in it, they go out for a taste of fresh 

 food. In the beginning ot May they bring forth their young, 

 which almost invariably consist the first year of two, after which 

 the average number is from four to six." 



Otter are also now very plentiful, and the marten, mink, fisher 

 and their fur-coated kin are not behind in fecundity. In fact, the 

 net-work of waters that course through the dark tree-avenues of 

 the reservation are becoming thickly populated with these animals, 

 and this region affords grand opportunities for the observation 

 and study of the naturalist. The true sportsman will certainly 

 rejoice that there is now such a sanctuary for our nobler game, 

 and that already the lordly moose, which has been almost totally 

 exterminated in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and elsewhere, and 

 which bids fair to suffer a similar fate in this Province, is again 

 multiplying. It seems almost incredible with what ferocity and 

 wastefulness such animals as the moose have been hunted and 

 killed in the past. According to an official report, in the spring 

 of 1887, to give an example, the carcasses of not less than sixty 

 moose were found in this district, the animals having been killed 

 for their skins alone. During the preceding winter, between Lake 

 Traverse on the Petawawa and Bissett's station on the C. P. R., 

 a distance of a little over twenty miles, seventy moose were 



