MODE OF TRAPPING BEAVER. 233 



swimming, which are pressed back against the body, 

 so that in passing over the trap the abdomen instead 

 of the feet comes in contact with the pan, causing the 

 trap to spring. As the trap cannot hold upon a broad 

 flat surface, the beaver escapes. 



There is another belief, universally adopted by both 

 Indians and trappers, which also admits of question, 

 namely, that when a beaver is caught by either fore 

 leg, he bites it off and thus frees himself from the 

 trap. Beavers are frequently taken with one and 

 sometimes both fore legs gone, and others with the 

 hind feet mutilated in various ways. Two of the 

 three beavers sent down to me from Lake Superior 

 last winter, for the purpose of dissection, had lost 

 each a fore leg, one the right and the other the left, 

 apparently cut off close to the shoulder, with the 

 stumps perfectly closed over with skin and healed. 

 The beaver represented in Plate I. is one of them, 

 and has his lost leg restored by borrowing the re- 

 maining one of his neighbor. A beaver was taken 

 on the Upper Missouri, in 1860, with but one perfect 

 foot remaining. Both fore legs were wanting, and 

 one of the hind feet was in part cut off. Captain 

 Wilson caught a beaver on the Esconauba River, in 

 1862, with but one perfect foot, and that, one of the 

 fore ones, by which he was captured. The other fore 

 leg was gone, apparently cut off close to the shoulder, 

 and the stump healed; one hind foot was cut off 

 across the middle of the webbed portion; and the 

 other diagonally across the same, leaving one toe and 

 its claw. This beaver had evidently been caught 

 four times in traps, from three of which he had 

 escaped. Trappers expect to lose most of the beavers 



