TEE BEAVER. 355 



following night, when they often fall victims to their love 

 of the injured settler's mutton. 



There are few animals that have been more written 

 about than the beaver. So many learned naturalists have 

 described its habits that I am almost afraid to approach 

 the subject. What induces me to do so is, that whereas 

 the older accounts of this animal rather border on the 

 marvellous, so the more recent ones passing from one 

 extreme to the other do not, in my opinion, do justice to 

 its cleverness. I have seen a good deal of the beaver. I 

 have met him " travelling " in the spring and summer, 

 and found him " at home " with his family in the fall and 

 winter; and I purpose to narrate only what has come 

 under my own observation. 



Some twenty or thirty years ago, when beaver fur fell 

 from 20s. to 2s. Qd. per lb., beavers were very scarce in 

 British North America. They are very prolific, however ; 

 and in a short time, thanks to the decrease in price, they 

 became as numerous as ever. During the last ten years 

 the demand for beaver fur has been slowly but steadily 

 increasing, owing to the growing scarcity of other fur; 

 and although not one-half as valuable as it was in the 

 olden times, it still pays to hunt them. The country, too, 

 is of course getting opened up ; and as the price of fur 

 rises and population increases, so do the beavers decrease. 

 They are now only to be found on the extreme heads of 

 rivers far away from settlements. 



The vicinity of a large beaver camp very much re- 

 sembles that around an Indian camp, so much so that a 

 person unacquainted with and unprepared for the animal 



