24 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



length, and five and a half inches at its greatest 

 width. Another beaver, whose pelt I have, weighed 

 thirty- three and a half pounds. It was caught in 

 the year 1862, upon the same dam and at the same 

 time with the one whose skeleton is shown, and 

 was probably her mate, and if so, a male. These 

 beavers, all of which were taken on the south shore 

 of Lake Superior, may be regarded as average speci- 

 mens of the beaver of this locality. From a compar- 

 ison of their skulls with others in my collection from 

 the same district, sixty pounds is not an improbable 

 weight in occasional instances. The skull belonging 

 to the skeleton referred to, and which is No. 4 in the 

 Table of Measurements prepared by Dr. Ely (Appendix 

 A, note 1), measures 4:i%% inches from the end of the 

 nasal bones to the occipital ridge, while that marked 

 No. 40 in same table measures Stdtt inches. As the for- 

 mer beaver weighed forty-three pounds, it is a reason- 

 able inference that the latter must have weighed at 

 least sixty pounds. The beavers of the Upper Mis- 

 souri are about the same size, while those in Oregon 

 and California are said to attain a larger average size, 

 with how much of truth I cannot state. Brandt, in 

 his elaborate work on the Rodents, and which is par- 

 ticularly full upon the beaver, concludes, after a comr 

 parison of a large number of specimens, that the 

 Asiatic, European, and American beavers are not dis- 

 tinguishable from each other in size.^ 



In form the beaver is short between the fore and 

 hind legs, broad, heavy, and clumsy, and his motions 

 are slow and awkward. He walks with a waddling 



^ Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Peters- 

 boarg. Sixth Series. Sciences Naturelles, tome vii. p. 61. 



