The beavers have brought a supply of tree trunks and boughs to repair the break in the dam and 

 thus save the pond 



as previously noted, for the making of 

 hats, and as these hats were worn in 

 ever increasing numbers from 1100 on- 

 wards until the invention of the silk hat, 

 it seems quite probable that the beaver 

 hat was the cause of the practical ex- 

 termination of the beaver in Europe. 



About 1840 as the number of beavers 

 was getting low and the price for their 

 skins correspondingly high, the big South 

 American water rat, or coypu, known to 

 the trade as " nutria," came to their aid. 

 The fur of these animals felted just as 

 well and cost much less, and they were 

 imported by thousands. The silk hat 



however, was their real salvation; this, 

 the hall mark of the well-dressed man, 

 is said to have reached Paris about 1825, 

 although it was known in Florence at 

 least fifty years earlier. 



The beavers gained a new lease of 

 life from the introduction of the silk hat. 

 It rapidly came into vogue and the price 

 of beaver skins declined to a point where 

 trapping was no longer profitable, and 

 for a time the animal increased and 

 multiplied. The drop in price may be 

 realized by saying that in 1869 . skins 

 were offered by the bale as low as twenty- 

 five cents apiece. 



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