28 THE BEAVER TN ITS REI.ATTON TO FORESTRY. 



yet the sites now recognizable must only he a fraction of what 

 were to he seei\in primitive times. Availahle records are not at 

 hand of the number of heaver skins annually exported from the 

 province during the French regime, wdien the destruction must 

 have been very great, for the fur was in high demand. Yet not- 

 withstanding the immense annual drain made upon the stock for 

 half a century or morebeforc^ th3 [)r()vince passed under the power 

 of Britain in 1763, it is a matter of record that one merchant firm 

 alone of St- John exported 60,000 skins or upwards annually 

 for some years after 1783. Hence the conclusion is justified that 

 in iM'imitive times these animals were exceedingly numerous in 

 this well-watered section of Canada, and as it is their habit to 

 separate into small communities and establish homes more or 

 less apart from one another, they must in time have penetrated 

 every part and built their little catch-basins therein. That age 

 was contemporaneous with the period of greatest foresi develop- 

 ment, while the destruction of the heaver marks the introduction 

 of a series of changes in the natural conditions which ushered in 

 the period of decline. 



In the efforts about to be made to increase the extent and con- 

 serve the productiveness of forest areas, it is not possil)le to 

 restore all ancient conditions, but the protection of the beaver 

 l)y wise and stringent measures, well enforced, can easily he ha,d 

 without injury or loss to any interest. Moreover the animal is 

 quite prolific; and as the otter, its worst enemy after man, has 

 become rare, twenty-five years of protection must find it well 

 represented on the brooks and streams of the forest, pushing for- 

 ward with all its proverbial industry nnd skill those works that 

 were largely the life and strength of forest growth. 



It may be objected that the indefinite multiplication of these 

 water-plots must reduce considerably the productive areas of the 

 forest, and result in the loss of much timber owing to the 

 drowning of the trees on these pond-sites, but a little con- 

 sideration will show that it is the least valuable of the forest 

 trees that grow in these little valleys, and can well be spared to 

 furnish room for a prime necessity of luxuriant growth. More- 

 over the beaver does not use for food or building purposes any 



