DISTRIBUTION 19 
turned to one or two places in West Virginia, in which state 
it had been considered as extinct for fifty years or more. 
I have a private letter saying that three colonies have es- 
tablished themselves in New Jersey. 
According to Barret-Hamilton and Hinton’s British 
Mammals, the Old World beaver once occupied the ‘‘Whole 
of the forested region of Eurasia, from Lapland and northern 
Russia southwards to Spain, Italy, and the Euphrates, 
and from Great Britain eastwards at least as far as the 
Lena. ‘The Asiatic limits of its distribution are, however, 
still imperfectly known.’’ While the beaver lived in Great 
Britain, it never was an inhabitant of Ireland. 
The same authors state that at the present time, the 
beaver is found only in southwestern Norway, in the Elbe, 
and in the delta of the Rhone, in each of which localities 
it is supposed to enjoy complete protection. The Nor- 
wegian colony is the most important. Nothing is said by 
these authors about the present day distribution in eastern 
Kurope or in Asia. 
It is remarked that the colony in the Rhone delta must 
be one of the most interesting in the world, “for since there 
is little or no timber at hand, the beavers must lead what is 
practically the life of a huge water rat.” 
James O. Pattie’s Narrative gives us an excellent concep- 
tion of the number of beavers to be found in some parts of 
the West a hundred years ago. Trapping on the Gila 
River and some of its tributaries in Arizona, from the middle 
of December, 1824, through March, 1825, his party of seven 
took four hundred and fifty beavers. In one night thirty- 
seven were taken. In February, 1826, he found the Salt 
River in Arizona to abound with beaver. In the spring 
and summer of that year he reported beavers scarce on the 
South Platte and on the main Platte, owing to continual 
trapping. The winter of 1827-28 he made another expedi- 
