LAKE DWELLERS. 165 



perhaps, through a long stretch of forest with canoe, 

 commissariat, and luggage. 



To the eye of the naturalist one of the most interesting 

 points in connection with the chain of lakes referred to 

 is, that on their banks are the houses of the few families 

 of beaver left in the province ; for though their works 

 and the fruit of their labours attest their presence 

 formerly in every direction, not a beaver exists from the 

 Port Medway River — a few miles eastward of the 

 Eossignol waters — and the eastern end of Cape Breton. 

 This animal was formerly abundant throughout the 

 British Provinces, and a large portion of the United 

 States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and would 

 ere this have totally disappeared from the maritime 

 provinces, but for the caprice of fashion in hats which, 

 substituting silk for the beaver-nap, arrested its destruc- 

 tion, and thereby, as Mr. Marsh suggests, in ^' Man and 

 Nature,'' involved possible alterations in the physical 

 features of a continent. Nova Scotia abounds in all the 

 conditions necessary to its existence — rivers, brooks and 

 swampy lakes — and its former abundance is attested by 

 the prevalence of such names as " Beaverbank," " Beaver 

 Harbour," and the numerous " Beaver Lakes " and 

 " Beaver Rivers " scattered round the Province. The 

 market being so near, and its haunts so accessible and 

 easy of observation, it is surprising that its extermination 

 in this part of America has not been long since effected. 

 Indeed, the animal now appears to be on the increase. 



In past times, undoubtedly, the beaver has had much 

 to do with the formation of the "wild meadows," as 

 they are locally termed, which are of frequent occurrence 

 in the backwoods, and from which the settler draws 



