XXX. 



KOTES ON THE RE-IXTRODUCTIOX OF THE BEAVER INTO 



BRITAIN. 



By xVuGUSTUs Haavks. 



Bead at Hertford, 2dth March, 1883. 



(Abridged.) 



IEt paper has, I am sorry to have to confess, nothing in it of 

 that special local interest which is very properly looked for in the 

 ' Transactions ' of this Society, yet I have some hope that it may 

 not be altogether devoid of general interest. We all know that 

 after we have visited any country we feel much more interest in 

 ■what we read about it. So I, having seen with my own eyes some 

 of the work of beavers, have not only become particularly interested 

 in them myself, but have cherished a hope that I may be able to 

 make them interesting to others. 



Being at Eothesay last autumn, we took the opportunity of 

 visiting the beaver-settlement which Lord Bute has established 

 on his estate. Mount Stuart, in the Isle of Bute. We found it in a 

 pine-wood, through which runs a small stream, three or four acres 

 of sloping ground being enclosed with stone walls and iron fences. 

 Into this enclosure Lord Bute (after some other attempts which were 

 xmsuccessful), in January, 1875, turned seven or eight beavers which 

 he had obtained from North America. This colony has increased 

 and multiplied, so that now, although there have been some deaths 

 among them, the beavers number, according to the best estimate 

 the keeper can make, about thii'ty. 



The first proceeding of the colonists was to adapt the locality to 

 their wants and tasks, the principal step towards which was to con- 

 struct dams across the stream. So the beavers set to work, and 

 they have worked with such vigour that they have altogether 

 altered the face of their adopted country. They have made several 

 dams by which the stream is headed back into pools ; the largest is 

 at the lower end of the enclosure, upon which special pains have 

 been bestowed, evidently for the reason that they made here their 

 principal abode. 



For material for the dams, and for food, they went to work tree- 

 cutting — an operation which they perform with great judgment, 

 and their tools for which are their teeth. The cutting-teeth are 

 two in each jaw, very large and strong. On the front they are 

 broad and flat, and of brownish-yellow or orange colour. A plate 

 of very hard enamel covers the bone forming the principal substance 

 of the tooth ; the tooth itself is of not very hard bone, and has a 

 ridge on the back strengthening it. Bone, though not so hard as 

 enamel, is tougher ; its softness makes it wear faster than the 

 enamel, and its toughness renders it less liable to be broken. If 

 the whole tooth were enamel the cutting edge would wear down 

 faster than the rest, and the tooth become blunt ; but the bone 

 wears with less action than the enamel, and thus the enamel stands 



