186 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



general colour of the Beaver is brown, as shown in the illustration, 

 but, especially towards its Northern limit in America, black specimens 

 occur, and, rarely, white or pied individuals are found. In size the 

 Beaver equals a fair-sized Dog, weighing about thirty pounds, though 

 specimens much heavier than this are met with. 



It is found in the Northern Hemisphere all round the world, 

 though the American race presents, as a rule, certain slight differences 

 in the form of the skull, which have caused some authors to rank it 

 as a distinct species. In Europe and Northern Asia the Beaver is 

 a rare and very local animal, and comparatively little known, though 

 the ancients were acquainted with it as the producer of the drug 

 castoreum, which is contained in two pouches situated under the skin 

 and muscles beneath the tail. They do not, however, seem to have 

 been acquainted with the wonderful architectural and engineering 

 instincts of the animal, and, indeed, these are seldom manifested in 

 Europe, where the animals usually live in holes in the banks of 

 streams like Water-rats, and have only been known in a few cases to 

 build the dams and houses which have long been so familiar as the 

 handiwork of the American race. 



Beavers inhabited Britain in historical times, and lingered in the 

 river Teify, in Wales, well into the Middle Ages, and they may still be 

 found on the Rhone, the Elbe, and in Norway, to say nothing of 

 remoter localities farther to the East. In America they used to range 

 from the shores of Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, but they 

 were early exterminated from the more settled parts of the country, 

 and have everywhere been much reduced in numbers. The country 

 they affect is well-wooded land with plenty of water, and thus they 

 have always had a stronghold in the great forests of the North. On 

 the shores of large bodies of water they merely burrow in the banks, 

 and it is chiefly in small streams that they display their remarkable 

 instincts. Although most at home in the water, they obtain most of 

 their food on land, as this consists very largely of the bark and soft 

 wood of trees ; and, though they are more active on land than their 

 clumsy shape would lead one to expect, and can inflict very severe 



