MODE OF TRAPPING BEAVER. 221 



infrequently. While the surveys on the Marquette and 

 Ontonagon Railroad were progressing, a small party 

 encamped upon the main branch of the Esconauba, 

 near its source, counted nineteen treefalls, which they 

 heard in a single night, between the hours of seven 

 and twelve o'clock. Along the margins of streams 

 inhabited by beavers, the stubs of trees cut down by 

 them are very numerous. They are met at almost 

 every step. This might be expected, since a number 

 of years are required to obliterate the evidences of 

 their work. Many trees partially cut and abandoned 

 are also found, as well as many that have lodged in 

 falling. 



The usual number of beavers in a litter, as else- 

 where stated, is from three to five, but it is occasion- 

 ally greater. William Bass, before mentioned, found 

 eight young beavers in a foetal state in one female, 

 and eight young beavers born alive in a single lodge. 

 He had also found six young ones a number of times, 

 and all the numbers below this down to a single 

 young beaver. With reference to the duration of 

 their lives it is difficult to ascertain any facts tending 

 to establish its limit. There are no indications to be 

 found on their teeth by which their age can be de- 

 termined; but their tails grow stout with age, and 

 become grayish or light colored on the under side. 

 Their teeth file down and lose their sharpness, and 

 they become lean and their flesh tough as they grow 

 old; but these are relative indications only. Bass in- 

 formed me that he once caught a part of a beaver's foot 

 in a trap, taking four of the five claws; and that eight 

 years afterward he caught a beaver in the same trap- 

 ping district with the corresponding foot mutilated in 



