246 THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



London, in January and August, 1854, five hundred 

 and nine thousand two hundred and forty beaver 

 skins; in January and August, 1855, sixty-tvi^o thou- 

 sand three hundred and fifty-two; and in January, 

 1856, fifty-six thousand and thirty-three;^ making in 

 the aggregate the enormous number of six hundred 

 and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and twenty- 

 five beaver skins in the course of two and a half years. 

 It is to be inferred that the large number sold in 1854 

 was the accumulation of a few previous years, and 

 that the numbers sold in 1855 and in the first half of 

 1856 show the average annual production at this 

 late period. 



The foregoing statistics are sufficient to indicate the 

 numerical extent to which the species had become de- 

 veloped and increased in North America, as well as 

 to mark the areas in which they were the most abund- 

 ant. A statement before made may be here repeated, 

 that the beaver, with his life, has contributed in no 

 small degree to the colonization and settlement of the 

 British Provinces and the United States. 



Having in the preceding pages discussed the princi- 

 pal questions with reference to the beaver and his 

 works, it is proposed, in a final chapter, to consider 

 some of those relating to Animal Psychology. Al- 

 though a digression from the main subject to one 

 entirely independent, the two are strictly correlated. 

 It must be the ultimate result of investigations con- 

 cerning the habits and lives of animals to raise Ani- 

 mal Psychology to the rank of a science, by afibrding 



^ Schoolcraft's Hist., Cond., and Pros., of the Indian Tribes, 



vi. 128. 



