THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS. 21 



stone," is the product of a gland of the beaver, of peculiar, disagree- 

 able odor and bitter taste, known in medicine as castoreum, which 

 has earned for itself considerable reputation as an antispasmodic and 

 nervine, though of late years it has largely been superseded by reme- 

 dies of more agreeable flavor ; for some reason it proves very attrac- 

 tive to beaver, alluring alike both old and young of both sexes. A 

 bit of peeled apple, or the bulb of the water-lily, is also used as 

 " medicine," but is not considered as " taking." 



Where the water is constantly ebbing and flowing, steel traps are 

 frequently of little value, though under ordinary circumstances to be 

 preferred. A trap requires some six inches of water over it, with still 

 deeper water beyond, for the moment the beaver feels its jaw^s, which 

 invariably grasp a foot or toe, he turns a somersault into the deeper 

 pool in the vain hope to shake it off, and there drowns. But, should 

 the water be deeper, he swims over the trap unharmed ; if lower, he 

 releases himself by amputation ; and a beaver who once tastes the 

 perils of a trap is not only ever careful of assuming a second risk of 

 the kind, but seems to possess the faculty of warning his companions. 

 When a trap is set before the dwelling, the channel leading to the 

 door is found by sounding, and it is placed therein, guarded on each 

 side by two stakes that preclude passing except by the dangerous path. 

 It is placed a little nearer one stake, in order that any attempt to cut 

 it will insure a fore-foot touching the pan ; if the other stake is at- 

 tacked, then a hind-foot is caught. 



Sometimes, especially in winter, stakes are driven through the ice 

 so as effectually to block up the entrance to the house, whose roof is 

 then broken open, and the inmates dispatched. Again, the dam is cut 

 in numerous places and traps are set in the openings, that the beaver 

 may be caught while attempting to repair the breaches. But neither 

 of these processes is in vogue with the true trapper, unless the colony 

 be a very small one, as the animals are likely to have burrows in the 

 banks that serve as store-houses into which they retire at the first 

 alarm ; and the loss of two or three of their number while repairing 

 the dam will render the survivors extremely cautious and wary, per- 

 haps cause them to migrate in a body. 



The quickness with which a colony discovers a wholesale attempt 

 against their peace is astonishing ; yet if their numbers are undis- 

 turbed, or diminished but gradually, even the presence of civilization 

 will not drive them from their haunts. To-day beaver are returning 

 to streams in Michigan, long ago abandoned by their race, simply be- 

 cause they find themselves unmolested, the demand for beaver-peltry 

 being slight, and the prices paid out of all proportion to the labor 

 entailed in trapping. It has been said that, if a dam or house be once 

 injured by the hand of man, the colony at once disappears. But 

 that this is fallacious is proved by the following : Twenty-two miles 

 from Marquette, Michigan, on the Carp River, a beaver colony began 



