1272 THE RODENTS 



Pacific." Since the date when this passage was penned, the extermination of the 

 beaver appears to have gone on apace; and Mr. H. T. Martin, writing in 1892, says 

 that ' ' only a few colonies now linger in the United States, especially on the slopes of 

 the Rocky mountains, while in Canada, the numbers of the animal are vastly dimin- 

 ished. Along the watershed, between the Hudson's Bay rivers and the St. L,awrence, 

 in the upper waters of the Fraser and Peace rivers, and along the Rocky-mountain 

 range, may be considered the last homes of the beaver." Mr. Martin adds that "as 

 to the ultimate destruction of the beaver no possible question can arise, and the evi- 

 dence of approaching extermination can be seen only too plainly in the miles of 

 territory exhibiting the decayed stump, the broken darn, and deserted lodge. The 

 passing bear or wolverene tears open the lodge, partly in the vain hope of finding a 

 meal, partly from habit; the rising waters float the logs away, while the drifting ice 

 in fall and spring gradually destroys the dam, till within a decade, where once the 

 busy colony spent their happy domestic lives, no sign remains of all their wondrous 

 toil." 



Beavers are mainly nocturnal, and almost exclusively aquatic ani- 

 mals; although it is stated that during the summer they will some- 

 times make journeys of considerable length on land, when they subsist upon fruit 

 and corn, instead of their usual diet of bark and twigs. They are likewise essentially 

 social creatures, usually associating in larger or smaller colonies, although the few 

 still remaining in the rivers of the Old World are owing to the lack of companions 

 - for the most part either solitary or in pairs. Needless to say, these animals are 

 expert divers and swimmers; their movements in the water being graceful in the ex- 

 treme, and effected almost entirely by the aid of their powerful and webbed hind- 

 limbs. In addition to bark and twigs, they consume large quantities of the roots 

 and stems of water lilies and other aquatic plants. The young, usually from three 

 to four in a litter, are produced at the close of the winter or early in the spring, in 

 the shelter of the burrow or lodge, but it is not yet ascertained whether they are 

 born with their eyes open or closed. Beavers do not hibernate, in the strict sense of 

 the term, although during the depth of the winter they sleep longer, and move 

 about much less than at other times. In the winter, in America at all events, they 

 swim about beneath the ice, dragging up water-lily roots for food and feasting upon 

 the store of branches they have accumulated in the deep pools during the winter; 

 and it is for the purpose of securing a sufficient depth of water in which to swim be- 

 neath the ice that they construct their well-known dams. Most of the beavers still 

 remaining in the rivers of the Old World live in burrows in the banks, without con- 

 structing either dams or lodges. The colony near Magdeburg, alluded to above, are 

 known, however, to have undertaken both these engineering works; and it is hence 

 probable that European beavers were originally similar as regards their habits to 

 their American cousins, but that through their reduced numbers and the constant 

 persecution which they have undergone, the building propensity has been lost. 



In America beavers generally select as their haunts a well-timbered district 

 traversed by a narrow stream; and, by felling the trees on the banks, and forming 

 with the aid of their trunks and boughs a dam and lodges across the stream, the 

 water is headed back so as to form a large lake or pool. In some cases a series of 



