206 MARCH OF CIVILIZATION. 



regions, living in undisturbed quiet and happiness all the 

 year, building their dams, their canals, and cities on all the 

 ponds, rivers, and lakes hereabouts. But they are all gone 

 now. I inquired if any had been seen of late years, and 

 could hear of but a single family, which some ten years ago 

 were said to dwell somewhere in the vicinity of Mud Lake, 

 the highest and wildest of all these mountain lakes. The 

 last of these was taken four or five years ago, since which 

 no sign of the beaver has been discovered. They are doubt- 

 less all gone, and as this was their last abiding-place, they 

 may be regarded as extinct on this side of the Alleghany 

 ranges, and probably on this side of the eastern slopes of 

 the Rocky Mountains. Like the beaver, the Indian who 

 turned against him, will soon be gone too. Annihilation is 

 written as the doom of both. The wild man must pass 

 away with the woods and the forests, before the onward 

 rush of civilization, and history will soon be all that will re- 

 main of the Indian and his ancient brother the beaver. 



Well, be it so, and who will regret it ? It is a sad thing 

 to see a whole race perish, wiped out from the aggregate of 

 human existence. But in this instance, its place will be 

 filled by a higher and nobler race, and the hunting-ground 

 of the savage and the pagan, be converted into cultivated 

 fields ; where stood the wigwam, will stand the farm-house; 

 where the council-fires blazed, will stand the halls of enlight- 

 ened and Christian legislation ; churches and school-houses, 

 and all the accompaniments of Christianity and civilization 



