NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 59 



the inevitable result of continued pursuit by both whites and 

 natives, which has so many parallels that it is useless to 

 emphasize it here. At Fort Selkirk I saw several beaver skins 

 taken on a small tributary of Stewart River and at St. Michael 

 I found a very few in the warehouses of the trading companies. 

 Beyond this I saw or heard nothing of them." 



Dr. Francis Harper states that under recent protective laws 

 beavers are increasing in Alberta at the present time, and it 

 seems likely that proper restrictions, if they can be enforced in 

 all this region, will result in an increase of beavers, so that they 

 may in time prove a regular and profitable source of revenue. 



Concerning the habits of the beaver a great deal has been 

 written. Their general activities center around, first, the dams 

 constructed solidly of sticks, branches, and larger pieces of 

 wood, together with stones, mud, and other material from the 

 pond bottom; then with the resulting formation of a pond, the 

 construction of a house which serves as a shelter for young and 

 adults, and has entrances under water into the pond. In the 

 pond, aspen logs are sunk for a winter food supply, for the 

 bark of this tree is a favorite food. An older colony will in 

 time connect various pools with? canals and the dams may be 

 extended to works of great magnitude. A single litter of from 

 two to six young is produced in the course of a year, so that 

 the increase of a colony may be fairly rapid and the young 

 when of adult size move off to found new colonies. Extensive 

 accounts of the habits may be found in the following works: 



DUGMORE, A. RADCLYFFE. 



ca. 1913. The romance of the beaver: Being the history of the beaver in the 

 western hemisphere, xvi -f- 225 pp., illustr. Philadelphia and London. 

 BAILEY, VERNON. 



1922. Beaver habits, beaver control, and possibilities in beaver farming. U. S. 



Dept. Agric. Dept. Bull. 1078, 29 pp., 7 figs., 7 pis. 

 1927. How beavers build their houses. Smithsonian Inst. Kept, for 1926, pp. 



357-360, pis. 1-6. 

 CHAPMAN, WENDELL and LTJCIE. 



1937. Beaver pioneers, xiv -f- 153 pp., illustr. New York and London. 

 MARTIN, HORACE T. 



1892. Castorologia, or the history and traditions of the Canadian beaver, xvi + 



238 pp., illustr. Montreal and London. 

 MILLS, ENDS A. 



1913. In beaver world, xiv + 228 pp., illustr. Boston and New York. 

 WARREN, E. R. 



1922. The life of the Yellowstone beaver. Roosevelt Wild Life Bull., vol. 1, 

 pp. 187-221. 



