CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITAT. 31 



repairing dams. If such instances have occurred 

 they must be exceptional. This subject will be re- 

 ferred to again. 



It is extremely difficult without dissection to de- 

 termine the sex of beavers, as they are monotrema- 

 tous, and there is nothing in their general appearance 

 to indicate the difference. The female brings forth 

 her young usually in May, and from two to five and 

 sometimes six at a time. In some rare instances eight 

 have been found in a foetal state among the beavers 

 of Lake Superior, and the same number born alive in 

 the lodge. Upon this subject Hearne remarks: "The 

 Indians, by killing them in all stages of gestation, 

 have abundant opportunities of ascertaining the usual 

 number of their offspring. I have seen some hun- 

 dreds of them killed at the seasons favorable for these 

 observations, and never could" discover more than six 

 young in one female, and that only in two instances; 

 for the usual number, as I have before observed, is 

 from two to five."^ The female has but four nipples, 

 two between the shoulders and two a few inches back 

 of them. At six weeks, a young beaver, captured 

 and domesticated, will wean itself and take to bark. 

 The period of gestation is from three to four months, 

 and the ordinary duration of their lives from twelve 

 to fifteen years. 



The habitat of the American beaver is unusually 

 broad. It is not surpassed by that of any other 

 animal upon the continent, the deer and the fox not 

 excepted. He was found from the confines of the 

 Arctic Sea on the north, to the Gulf of Mexico, the 



^ Hearne's Jonrney, p. 241. 



