THE BEAVERS 1275 



caught in another trap on the following day; and there is an instance recorded where 

 one of these animals, after having gnawed off a leg in order to escape, again suffered 

 itself to be ensnared. 



The great natural enemy of the beaver is the glutton, or wolverene, whose 

 common Canadian name of carcajou is a "corruption " of the Indian word "quick- 

 wahuy," said to mean " beaver eater. " The glutton either digs the beavers out 

 of their lodges, or catches them by lying in wait in the woods. 



The Hudson's Bay Company have wisely assigned certain islands in their terri- 

 tory as beaver preserves, where a certain number of the animals are killed every 

 third year only. It has been proposed to establish "beaver ranches" in America, 

 but, as Mr. Martin points out, the attempts hitherto made to domesticate these ani- 

 mals do not hold out much encouragement as to the success of the project. It is 

 true that beavers live and become fairly tame in menageries (where, from their 

 nocturnal habits, they are but rarely seen), but the} 7 rapidly deteriorate, losing the 

 brilliant gloss of their coats, and acquiring dull, listless habits. 



The European beaver makes its first appearance in the " forest 

 Beavers ^^ " f t^ 16 Norfolk coast, belonging to the lower part of the Pleisto- 

 cene period. Here it was accompanied by the giant extinct beaver 

 { Trogontherium) , distinguished not only by its superior size, but by differences in 

 the structure of the skull and teeth. Its range extended to Siberia. Beavers be- 

 longing to the living genus occur in the Pliocene strata of Europe and the Miocene 

 of North America. The earliest European beaver is the Chalicomys, which is found 

 in the Miocene beds of the Continent, and was of considerably smaller size than the 

 living forms, while it differed from all living Rodents in having a perforation at the 

 lower end of the upper arm bone or humerus. 



