The Home of the Wolverene at id Beaver. 65 



coarse ; the latter is dense, soft, and silky. In 

 general the fur is of a shining chestnut colour, but 

 it varies considerably, for black beavers are some- 

 times captured, and white ones are not unknown. 

 At the root of the tail are found the glandular sacs 

 containing the musky unctious substance called 

 castoreum. 



Such is the description of the Castor Fiber, and 

 now we come to its habits. Before noticing the 

 facts ascertained by modern naturalists, it may not 

 be uninteresting to hear what our forefathers thought 

 of this curious animal, and to notice how intimately 

 fiction and fact are blended together. In Pinker- 

 ton's Voyages, vol. I., p. 418, will be found the 

 following : — 



" The beaver is met with in some districts of 

 Swedish Lapland, and on the banks of a very large 

 and famous lake, which is said to be twelve miles in 

 circuit. The same lake, as reported, is of an 

 immense and almost unfathomable depth, and in it 

 are many lesser islands. They say the tooth of this 

 animal is reddish, crooked, and almost squared. 

 His tail, by the aid of which he is said to make a 

 house for himself, is broad, rough, and full of scales. 

 The wool, or rather hairs, are sold to the Russians 

 in common, and at a good price ; they purchase also 

 the skin for the covering their under garment with. 



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