THE BEAVERS 1269 



however, that these characteristics are liable to a certain amount of variation in the 

 two forms. 



Owing to incessant persecution for the sake of their valuable fur. 

 Distribution 01 ,..., , . A . , 



_ both the European and the American beaver are doomed to extmc- 



turopean . * 



Beaver ^ on as w ^ d animals at no very distant date; this fate having already 

 practically overtaken the European species, which only lingers here 

 and there in small numbers. Formerly beavers were widely spread over Europe, 

 and their abundance in the British Isles is attested not only by the numerous 

 remains found in the fens and cavern deposits of England, but likewise by the 

 number of places, such as Beaverbourne, Beverage, Beaverege, Bevercater, Bever- 

 ley, Beverstone, and Beversbrook, which derive their names from these animals. 

 According to the researches of Mr. J. E. Harting, it does not appear that there is 

 any historic evidence of the existence of beavers in England; but in Wales it is on 

 record that they still lingered in Cardigan as late as the year 1188. That they 

 occurred in the south of Scotland is proved by the occurrence of their remains, but 

 there is no definite historic evidence of their existence; while in Ireland we have 

 neither the testimony of their remains nor of documents. 



SKELETON AND JAWS OF BEAVER. 



On the Continent beavers were exterminated from Holland in 1825. In France 

 evidence of the former abundance of these animals is afforded by their buried re- 

 mains, and by the names of places like Bievres and Beuvray. Within the historic 

 period the Rhine and its tributaries appear to have been their last strongholds, 

 although they had become very rare during the last century. Beavers are, however, 

 still met with in the Rhone and its affluents, where M. Mayet, writing in 1889, esti- 

 mates that from twenty-five to thirty are annually killed. In the Pleistocene period 

 the beaver ranged into Italy as far south as Rome, but there is no evidence of its 

 existence there since that date. The lake villages of Switzerland afford evidence of 

 the abundance of beavers in that country during the prehistoric period; and in the 

 early part of this century they still lingered on the Rhine, one having been captured 

 in the year 1829. In Northwestern Germany the Moselle and the Maas were for- 

 merly noted for the number of their beavers. The Lippe one of the tributaries of 

 the Rhine was likewise a well-known haunt; and at Kettlinghausen and Pader- 

 born on that river, there were large colonies of these animals at the beginning of the 

 present century. Again, in the Elbe basin, there was a considerable colony near 



