FAMILY CASTORID^. 73 



Description. Body thick and clumsy, enlarging gradually from the head backwards. Head 

 broad and conical, flattened above. Nose large and obtuse, divided, furnished with strong 

 whiskers. Eyes small and black. Ears short, rounded, and almost concealed in the fur. 

 Neck short and thick. Fore feet small and short, with separate toes ; the five claws stout 

 and compressed, the central one longest, the outer and inner shortest. Hind feet with elon- 

 gated soles ; the toes connected throughout their whole length by a stout membrane. Tail 

 broad, flattened, rather pointed at the end, and (except at its origin, where it is furnished for 

 some distance with short hair,) it is covered with sub-hexagonal scales, not imbricated, with a 

 few scattering hairs in the interstices. Incisors very robust, smooth, flat and yellowish in front, 

 rounded and white behind. Molars above directed backward and outward ; of the lower jaw, 

 forward and inward. The surfaces of the molars represent elliptical and irregular figures, 

 caused by the foldings of the enamel ; they are almost impossible to describe except by 

 figures, and musi change with age and continued trituration. The fur consists of two sorts ; 

 one composed of long, stiflf and elastic hairs, the other of a fine soft down. Glandular sacs 

 containing castoreum, or a strong musky grease or unctuous substance, near the anus. 



Color. The long and coarse hair chesnut brown ; the downy fur beneath, light plumbeous 

 or silver grey. There are occasional varieties, entirely black, or wholly black or mottled. 



Length of head and body, 24 • - 36 • 0. 



Ditlo of tail, 8-0- 12-0. 



The Beaver, whose skins once formed so important an article of commerce to this State, 

 as to have been incorporated in the armorial bearings of the old Colony, is now nearly extir- 

 pated within its limits. The skins of this animal even constituted a certain standard of 

 value, and were a portion of the circulating medium. Thus, in 1697, we find that Governor 

 Fletcher made a certain grant of a tract of land on the Mohawk, and the consideration named 

 in the deed was one beaver skin for the first year, and five annually forever after. According 

 to a letter from the Dutch West India Company, preserved in the Albany Records, we learn, 

 that in 1624, 400 beaver and 700 otter skins were exported; the number increased in 1635, 

 to 14,891 beaver and 1,413 otter skins ; and the whole- number in the ten years was 80,183 

 beavers and 7,347 otters, amounting in value to 725,117 guilders. In the same letter, the 

 directors complain that beavers have become exceedingly scarce ; having been sold at seven 

 guilders a piece, and even more. One of the earliest legislative enactments .by the rulers of 

 the Colony, was in reference to the peltry trade ; and I notice in the same records alluded to 

 above, that William De Kay, the ancestoi: of the writer, was appointed receiver of the duties 

 on beaver and bear skins. 



I am informed by Mr. T. O. Fowler, that in 1815, a party of St. Regis Indians from Canada 

 ascended the Oswegatchie river in the county of St. Lawrence, in pursuit of beaver. In con- 

 sequence of the previous hostilities between this country and England, this district had not 

 been hunted for some years, and the beaver had consequently been undisturbed. The party, 

 after an absence of a few weeks, returned with three hundred beaver skins. These were 

 seen by my informant, who adds that since that time very few have been observed. 

 Fauna. 10 



