Clifton College Scientific Society. 25 



throughout Wales, along with Baldwin Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, we learn that the Beaver was still found in the 

 river Teifj in Cardiganshire, and the writer gives an account 

 of its habits there, derived from his own observations. But 

 Boethius, the Scottish chronicler already mentioned, speaks 

 of the fihri (the term by which he calls the Beavers) as 

 existing in great quantities in his own time on Loch Ness, 

 and says that their fur formed an important article of export. 



Whether or not the British, Scandinavian, Germanic, 

 Siberian, and American Beavers be of the same species has 

 never yet been ascertained for certain, but it is believed that 

 there are perhaps hardly sufficient points of difference be- 

 tween the Old and New World forms to separate them into 

 the two species, Castor fiber and Castor Canadensis. The 

 European Beaver, like its American relation, shows a pro- 

 pensity for building and sociability, and the structural points 

 of difference between them seem really very small. 



All over the lakes, creeks, and rivers of British America, 

 wherever cultivation and the civilising hand of man have not 

 as yet made their way, the Canadian Beaver is to be found. 

 Though there are many isolated individuals, the animal 

 lives usually in societies, varying greatly in number. Eight 

 to twelve, however, is perhaps about the average in each 

 colony. The situation chosen for the settlement is very 

 generally on some shallow stream where there is a current in 

 the water, but they are found even on the sluggish water of 

 lakes. An especially favourite spot is one of the many creeks 

 which form so striking a feature in Canadian scenery. Innu- 

 merable lakes cover a great part of the face of this interest- 

 ing country, and they are coiuiected by brooks, falls, and 

 channels in a labyrinthine confusion. Indeed the rivers 

 themselves many a time widen out to form great pools often 

 miles in length, and as suddenly narrow their limits into 

 deep and rapid guUies. No part of the globe could be better 

 suited to the wants of the Beaver race : the lake and stream, 

 the uncleared forest, the wild solitudes untrodden by man, 

 have all lent their aid to preserve and multiply the favoured 

 animal, and, but for the persistent manner in which its 

 hunting has been carried on during a long course of years, 

 the Beaver would doubtless be even a commoner animal than 

 it now is. Strangely can fashion influence the destinies of a 

 race ! The ' Beaver hat ' of our grandfathers necessitated 

 the production of a tenfold quantity of skins : Beavers every 

 year became scarcer and dearer ; trappers made fortunes 

 and lived on the fat of the land ; at no slight expense did 



