102 NOTES ON BEAVERS. 



stood the intense cold by migratinj^ to southern Europe. The com- 

 parison in size between these two beavers, at one time contemporaneous, 

 coupled with anatomical characters, seems to preclude the possibility 

 of the lar^ijer being a more highly developed race of the smaller. 



The bones of beavers have been dug up in the lower brick earths of 

 the Thames and under the streets of Loudon ; and there can be no 

 doubt that at one time the beaver built its dam on this river and its 

 tributaries. Its remains were also found by Peugelly in Kent's Cavern, 

 near Torquay. 



In appearance the beaver is like a great rat — about two feet long 

 aud one foot high, its body thick and heavy, weighing about 341bs. ; the 

 head is compressed aud somewhat arched at the front, the upper part 

 rather narrow, the snout much so ; the eyes are placed rather high on 

 the head, and the pupils are rounded ; the short ears are almost con- 

 cealed by the fur ; the skins (a good one when dried weighs about 

 21bs.) are covered by two sorts of hair, of which one is long, rather 

 stiff, elastic, gray two-thirds of its length, the remainder being tipped 

 with shining reddish-brown points ; the other short, thick, tufted, aud 

 soft, being of different shades of silver gray or light lead colour ; the 

 hair is shortest on the head and feet ; the hind legs are longer than 

 the fore, and the hind feet only completely webbed ; there are five toes 

 on each foot ; the tail is ten or eleven inches long, and, except the part 

 nearest the body, entirely covered with hexagonal scales ; it is flattened 

 horizontally, and nearly oval in shape. From a habit the creature has 

 of giving self-satisfied slaps with this organ, the idea has been enter- 

 tained that it uses it for a trowel ; but this is now known to be an 

 error ; it is certainly employed as a means of alarm. 



The incisor teeth are semi-circular in shape, the enamel orange- 

 coloured aud intensely hard. Before the introduction of iron the 

 Indians fixed them in handles and employed them as chisels for 

 carving wood and horn. 



These animals secrete a peculiar substance known as castoreum, 

 extensively used by the slave and dog-rib tribes of Indians in the manu- 

 facture of medicine, and as a perfume for enticing both beaver and 

 lynx to the traps or snares laid for them. 



The flesh and tail are amongst the most prized dainties of Indian 

 epicures : the former when first smoked and then broiled is not at all 

 unwelcome food ; the latter when boiled is a noted article of trapper 

 luxury, though, forsooth, if the truth must be told, somewhat gristly 

 and fat, and rather too much for the stomach of anyone but a north- 

 western hunter or explorer. " He is a devil of a fellow," they say on 

 the Bocky Mountain slopes, " he can eat two beavers' tails." 



The scrapings of the beaver's skin form one of the strongest 

 descriptions of glue, not affected by water, and used by the Indians as 

 paint for their paddles. 



Smellie, in his "Philosophy of Natural History," devotes a chapter 

 to the Society of animals, in which he reminds us that the associatinj; 



