NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 65 



streams in that State but adds that "they have long since 

 disappeared." For Indiana much the same story is true; Dr. 

 Lyon (1936) quotes the Prince of Wied's statement, in 1832 

 and 1833, that beavers were then abundant along the lower 

 Wabash, but with the opening up of the country to settlement 

 in succeeding decades, they must have disappeared rapidly. 

 Nevertheless, he adduces some evidence for the belief that in 

 Wells County, Ind., beavers were present only a few years 

 since, possibly introduced; while similarly, Cory (1912), al- 

 though he writes that beavers are practically extinct in Illinois, 

 believes it "probable that a very few individuals may exist in 

 the extreme southern portion of the state." 



To the southward of this tier of States that may have marked 

 the northern limits of this beaver's range, information is 

 meager, but it indicates that the animals still hold on in a few 

 widely separated localities, where with real protection there is 

 some hope that they may continue and even increase con- 

 siderably. 



Within the memory of men now living beavers were present 

 in small numbers in the counties a short distance south of 

 Richmond, Va. A writer in Forest and Stream (vol. 7, p. 197) 

 for November 2, 1876, states that for the two years previous 

 to that time trappers had been taking beavers in Dinwiddie, 

 Nottoway, Brunswick, Cumberland, and other counties, some 

 making good returns on these and other furs. At that time 

 the pelts of beavers sold for a dollar apiece. Here, too, the 

 correspondent mentions having seen in some of these localities 

 places where beavers had totally destroyed acres of corn, caus- 

 ing serious loss. At the present time, I have no information of 

 any beavers remaining in the State. Possibly, however, a few 

 may have persisted in the mountainous parts of this State 

 and of West Virginia. F. E. Brooks (1911) mentions what he 

 believes to be a well-authenticated case of a beaver having 

 been killed in Pocahontas County, W. Va., about 1907, al- 

 though this was possibly brought in from elsewhere. Still 

 later, A. B. Brooks (1923) published a note on the reappearance 

 of beavers in West Virginia. He writes: "A few of the older 

 trappers and hunters still living state that beaver work was 

 observed by them many years ago on the headwaters of the 

 Williams and Greenbrier Rivers," but they had been "counted 

 as extinct in West Virginia for fifty years or more" until the 



