B E A 



124 



B E A 



ttoe gr. atest bcavor token, who, according to Dr. Richard- 

 on, only trench the beaver dam* of a particular quarter 

 nice in five year*, anil always lenvo a pair t least in a dam 

 t . breed, it is not likely that these animals can ever be so 

 plentiful us they were formerly. The satnc author observes 

 that tin- Indian* farther north", when they break upa beaver 

 lodge, destroy as far as they are able both young and old. 



In 1829 there wai an increase; for in that year 72,199 

 beaver tkiiu were imported from the British North Ame- 

 rican colonies, and 4200 from the United States. 



The earliest notice of the European beaver (taorup) is in 

 Herodotus (book iv. c. 109), who d.'srt ibcs it as inhabiting a 

 large lake in the country' of the Budini, a. nation whom In; 

 places on the east side of the upper Don (iv. 21). He says 

 that the skin was used for clothing, and the testicles (of which 

 we shall presently speak again) for affections of the womb. 

 Aristotle (book viii. c. 5) mentions the European beaver 

 under the name of tuaruip (castor), but only mentions it ; 

 while Pliny (book viii. c. 30 ami xxxii. c. 3, &c.) well describes 

 it. and is diffuse on the subject of the celebrated castoreutn, 

 so much valued us a medicine among the antients, and ulm li 

 long held a high place in the maturia medica of the moderns, 

 causing the persecution of this unfortunate animal before 

 its fur became an object of traffic. Pliny is very sage in 

 pointing out the frauds of dealers, and shows thereby that 

 he did not know what the castoreum really was. ' Cas- 

 torea testes corum,' writes Pliny (book xxxii. c. 3), and the 

 antients inform us that the animal used to bite off the part 

 (the testicles) when hunted, well knowing that with the pos- 

 session of the desired castorea the persecution would cease. 

 The only objection to this tale, which however absurd is 

 gravely stated by Pliny himself (book viii. c. 30), though he 

 afterwards (book xxxii. c. 3) says that Sextius, who appears 

 to have known something of the anatomy of the animal, de- 

 nies it, is, that from the organization of the animal such a dis- 

 tressing feat is all but impossible ; and we should not deem 

 the absurdity worthy of notice did we not daily see attempts 

 to revive old' fables, and the success which not unfrequently 

 follows, for a time at least, such attempts. Cuvier gives 

 the following account of the organs which secrete this sub- 

 stance : ' De grosses poches glanduleuses qui aboutissent 

 :"i leur prepuce, produissent une pommade d'une odeur forte, 

 employee en medicine sous le nom de castoreum.' Dr. 

 Richardson thus speaks of this substance : ' I have not had 

 an opportunity of dissecting a beaver, but I was informed by 

 the hunters that both males and females are furnished with 

 one pair of little bags containing castoreum, and also with u 

 second pair of smaller ones betwixt the former and the anus, 

 which are filled with a white fatty matter, of the consistence 

 of butter and exhaling a strong odour. This latter sub- 

 stance is not an article of trade; but the Indians occasion- 

 ally eat it, and also mingle a little with their tobacco when 

 they smoke. I did not learn the purpose that this secretion 

 is destined to serve in the economy of the animal ; but 

 from the circumstance of small ponds when inhabited by 

 beavers being tainted with its peculiar odour, it seems pro- 

 bable that it affords a dressing to the fur of these aquatic 

 animals. The cuitoreum in its recent state has an orange- 

 colour, which deepens, as it dries into bright reddish-brown. 

 During the drying, which is allowed to go on in the shade, 

 a gummy matter exudes through the sack, which the In- 

 dians delight in eating. The male and female rastoreum 

 is of the same value, ten pairs of bags of either kind being 

 reckoned to an Indian as equal to one beaver skin. The 

 cailureum is never adulterated in the fur countries.' As 

 the animal alluded to by Herodotus, Aristotle, and Pliny 

 was of course the European beaver, this part of the article 

 might perhaps have been looked for under the European 

 section ; but, as will be seen from the foregoing quotation, 

 the subject is so intimately blended with the history of the 

 American beavers, that it has been thought advisable to 

 give it the place which it now occupies *. 



Dr. Richardson, who says that the call of the beaver in 

 the pairing season is a kind of groan, gives the following as 

 the dimensions of a full grown beaver killed at Great 



In Umii'i description of th Feroe IiUn.li i. the following mceouul of a 

 onrwhal eiiraor.linary application of tin. .Irua. under the head of lltihrna 

 Mjrillcetiu (common or OtMmlud whale):- Tlio tYnwu nul.erm. n I<M|.T 

 tai'i a ireilt dtv, of llw and other luriie hlei. a. they would eaiiK 

 Ill-it bualt anil daih th^ra ID |deen. In order to drive away Hi 

 iir'. ifcfjr Hi a triece of caitomim Ui the fork on ohirh ilu-> iml uu tlii-ir 

 fi.hmj liu.-i. u lid II tivrnr remarkable, that hrn Iliii fork, wiili the <ton-iim 

 to it. lit pi ,cr.l in the watrr Iff,,;, tlip boat, the whale plunge im- 

 mediately lu the bottom and are never more teen. Oil of juniper U employed 

 fur ihe MOM porpOM. 1 



Slave Lake, and now in the museum of the Zoological 

 Society : 



Line*. 



Length of head and body 40 

 head alone . . 3 

 tail, scaly part ..11 6 

 Distance from tip of nose to ante- 

 rior part of eye ... 2 10 

 Distance Crorn the posterior part of 

 the orbit to anterior part of the ear 2 J 



He also gives the following account of the llesh, which, 

 a-, much has been said of its delicacy as food, U interesting. 

 'The Mesh of the beaver is much prized by the Indian*, :<nd 

 Canadian voyagers, especially when it is roasted in the -km, 

 after the hair has been singed oft". In some districts it re- 

 quires all the influence of the fur trader to restrain tho 

 hunters from sacrificing a considerable quantity of 1 

 fur every year to secure the enjoyment of this luxury ; and 

 Indians of note have generally one or two feasts in a sca>m, 

 wherein a roasted beaver is the prime dish. It resembles 

 pork in its flavour, but the lean is dark-coloured, the fat 

 oily, and it requires a strong stomach to sustain a full meal 

 of it. The tail, which is considered a great luxury, consists 

 of a gristly kind of fat, as rich but not so nauseating as the 

 fat of the body.' 



Pennant says that the geographical range of the Ame- 

 rican beaver commences in latitude 60 or about the River 

 of Seals, in Hudson's Bay, and terminates in latitude 3U in 

 Louisiana ; but Say places their limit at the continence of 

 the Ohio and Mississippi, about seven degrees further to the 

 northward of Pennant's southern boundary. Dr. Richard- 

 son observes that their most northern point is probably on 

 the banks of the Mackenzie (the largest American river 

 that falls into the Polar sea, and the best wooded, owing to 

 the quantity of alluvial soil by which it is bordered), as 

 high as 074 or G8 lat. ; and that they extend east and 

 west from one side of the continent to the other, with the 

 exception of the barren districts. He further states that 

 they are pretty numerous to the northward of Fort Franklin, 

 and that, from the swampy and impracticable nature of the 

 country, they are not likely to be soon eradicated from 

 thence. 



The following are the varieties of the American beaver : 



Var. a. Nigra, the black beaver. Heanie says that 

 thvse are more plentiful at Churchill than at any other t';ic- 

 tory in the bay, but that it is rare to get more than twelve 

 or fifteen of their skins in one vear's trade. 



Var. /3. Vatia, the spotted leaver. Dr. Richardson did 

 not see one of these, and Say records that an Indian during 

 his whole life caught but three. They had a large whito 

 spot on their breasts. 



Var. y. Alba, the white beaver. Hearne saw but one of 

 these albinos in twenty years, and that had many reddish 

 and brown hairs along the ridge of the back, though its 

 sides and belly were of a silvery white. Dr. Richardson 

 says that when the Indians find an individual of this kind 

 they convert the skin into a medicine bag and are very un- 

 willing to dispose of it : there is also a yellowish variel\ . 



The little Leaver, as it is sometimes called, Castor 'libe- 

 thirnx of Linnaeus. Fiber Zibethiciu of Cuvier, Ondatra of 

 Laccpcde, the Musk-rat of Canada, and Musquash of the 

 Cree Indians, is an animal generic-ally different from the 

 true beaver. [See MUSQUASH.] 



EUROPEAN BEATER. 



F. Cuvier has pointed out some slight differences in the 

 skulls of the European and American beavers which 1. 

 examined, for the purpose of showing that they are distinct, 

 but, in our opinion, not conclusively. Baron Cuvier, in the 

 last edition of his Rcgne Animal, expresses his uncertainty, 

 notwithstanding scrupulous comparison, whether the bea- 

 vers which live in burrows along the hanks ol the Rhone, 

 the Danube, the Wescr, and otiier rivers, are sperilirally 

 different from those of America, or whether their vicinity 

 to man is the cause that hinders them from building. He 

 docs not appear to have been aware of the colony described 

 by M. de Meycrinck in the Transaction! of the Il-r/in 

 natural Rutory Uodtty tot 1829, as having been settled 

 for more than a century on the small river Nuthe, a short 

 distance above it! confluence with the Elbe in a lonely can- 

 ton of the Magdeburg district. This little association, it 

 appears, amounted in 1822 to fifteen or twenty individuals 

 only ; but they were co-operative and industrious beyond 



