220 GNAWING ANIMALS 



on the second toe of the hind foot is an additional claw, 

 assisting to make the foot a better comb for the animal to 

 dress its fur. The hind feet only are webbed to the nails. 

 The head is large and round and the ears are short ; the tail, 

 broad and flat, is scaly and furrowed. The coat of the Beaver 

 is very thick and peculiarly soft and silky ; it is chestnut- 

 brown above and greyer below. The fur is generally 

 darker towards the northern limits of the animal's habitat. 



A few centuries ago the Beaver was common to almost the 

 whole of Europe, from Wales to the Urals, and it extended 

 across all Northern Asia. It has disappeared entirely from 

 Britain, and the few that still exist in Europe are to be 

 found only in Scandinavia and Poland, and only there 

 because they are strictly preserved. There used to be 

 Beavers in the Thames, and they existed in Wales as late as 

 1188. 



The American Beaver was extremely common when the 

 continent was first discovered, but comparatively very few 

 now remain in the United States, chiefly in the West ; and 

 in Canada their numbers are being steadily thinned towards 

 vanishing-point. In 1743, from Quebec alone, 127,000 skins 

 were exported to England, and the depletion has proceeded 

 apace since that time, until now in the course of a whole 

 year perhaps not more than a few thousand Beavers fall to 

 the trapper. 



The Beaver figures in the Canadian national shield as 

 an emblem of industry and sagacity ; and, indeed, if only 

 half of humanity was as intelligent, as provident, and as 

 laborious, ours would be a very different world. It is 

 chiefly its constructive capacity that attracts popular 

 interest, and of all animals it is the most methodical 

 engineer and builder. 



Living in smaller or larger societies, the animals select a 

 site in a stream upon which to rear an elaborate habitation. 

 They require still water of sufficient depth to leave at least 

 the bottom of it free of ice even in the most severe frost ; 

 and as timber is an absolute necessity, the animals only 

 frequent streams with wooded banks. The incisor teeth of 

 the Beaver are large, and so hard that the Indians use 

 them for cutting bone ; and the animals find little difficulty 



