CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS. l55 



Family Castorid.^. 



CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS a^i"n.) Alien. 



American Beaver. 



That the Beaver was once abundant in all parts of the Adiron- 

 dacks is attested by the numerous remains and effects of their 

 dams ; but at present they are so exceedingly rare that few people 

 know that they still exist here. 



Samuel de Champlain found them abundant in the Richelieu 

 River in the early part of July, 1609. He said of them : '' There 

 is also quite a number of Beavers, as well in the river as in several 

 other streams which fall into it." (Documentary History of New 

 York, Vol. HI, p. 5.) 



Dr. DeKay says that, in 1815, "a party of St. Regis Indians 

 from Canada ascended the Oswegatchie river in the county of St. 

 Lawrence in pursuit of Beaver. In consequence of the previous 

 hostilities between this country and England, this district had not 

 been hunted in some years, and the Beaver had consequently been 

 undisturbed. The party, after an absence of a few weeks, returned 

 with three hundred Beaver skins. These were seen by my in- 

 formant [Mr. T. O. Fowler], who adds that since that time very 

 few have been observed." * They were not immediately extermi- 

 nated, however, for Mr. Calvin V. Graves writes me that in 1834 

 a trapper named Hume caught six Beavers in Silverdog Pond, in 

 the northeastern part of the town of Diana, in Lewis County ; and 

 that a few years later Norman and Hume caught three Beavers on 

 the middle branch of the Oswegatchie, near Harrisville. These 

 are believed to have been the last Beavers which inhabited that 

 part of the Wilderness. 



selectmen to be just and true, to the treasurer of the state, in the month of June, the same shall be 

 paid from the state treasury either to the representative of such town or to the selectmen thereof, 

 upon their written order. 



" Section 3. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. 



" Approved September 11, 1S83." 



* Zoology of New York, Part I, 1842, ji. 73. 



