62 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



In the region of the type locality, beavers were becoming 

 scarce 40 years ago. Osgood (1901) mentions three secured by 

 trappers near the mouth of Turnagain Arm in 1899 and adds 

 that a few were taken every season along streams in the moun- 

 tains about 60 miles inland from Tyonek. "A trading station 

 on the lower Sushitna River also obtains a small quota annually. 

 Compared with former receipts, however, the number now 

 obtained is lamentably small." In a later report Osgood (1904) 

 adds that a little farther to the westward on the Chulitna River 

 he found evidence of a few scattered small colonies of beavers. 

 "The extensive area of low land about the sources of the 

 Chulitna River is covered with hundreds of small lakes and 

 ponds connected in most cases by small, sluggish streams 

 eminently suitable for beavers, and no doubt a great many are 

 still scattered throughout this area." A small number of skins 

 were annually brought in to the trader at Nushagak at the 

 mouth of the river of the same name. Farther south, in the 

 Atlin region of northwestern British Columbia, Swarth (1936) 

 writes that "as everywhere, beavers hereabout are trapped to 

 the verge of extinction. They in all likelihood were originally 

 abundant and generally distributed throughout the lowland 

 lakes." 



NEWFOUNDLAND BEAVER 



CASTOR CANADENSIS CAECATOR Bangs 



Castor caecator Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 54, p. 513, July, 1913 ("Near 



Bay St. George, Newfoundland"). 

 FIGS.: Bangs, 1913, figure on p. 514 (skull). 



Although the Newfoundland beaver was first described as a 

 species distinct from typical C. canadensis of the neighboring 

 mainland, it can scarcely be considered as more than the local 

 representative of that animal, which through a long period of 

 isolation has become slightly different in certain cranial char- 

 acters. The color has not been accurately described on account 

 of the lack of specimens in museum collections, but Bangs, in 

 naming it, mentions that he had seen two in the flesh, which, 

 though showing nothing distinctive in external appearance, 

 nevertheless appeared "rather small" and were of an "excep- 

 tionally fine rich color." The distinctive characters of the 

 skull are: the slightly smaller size as compared with the main- 

 land beaver, typical canadensis; the wider, "more roundish" 



