246 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



the habit of the European variety. As an illustration of this 

 I may note, in passing, that before the civil war, when all 

 the recesses of the forests in the region about Richmond, 

 Virginia, had for more than a century been industriously 

 explored by hunters, the beaver was supposed to be extinct 

 in the district ; yet during the civil war, as I am credibly 

 informed, a colony of these creatures became established 

 near the town of Suffolk, and there, amid the roar of a great 

 conflict in which men ceased to seek the lesser game, they 

 recovered their habit of building dams, which we must 

 believe to have been discontinued for many generations. 

 This capacity to vary action with reference to changing 

 needs is the best possible index of the mental power of ani- 

 mals. Guided by the exhibition that has been given us by 

 the beavers, we are justified in considering them to be the 

 one group of mammals which has gained a distinct, rational 

 constructive power. This feature makes them decidedly 

 the most interesting group for investigations which may 

 be expected to throw light on the problems of animal 

 intellio-ence. From the economic point of view the spe- 

 cies has a certain importance for the reason that it affords 

 one of the most valuable kinds of fur that has ever been 

 marketed. 



The domestication of the beavers to the point where they 

 would tolerate the presence of man should not, provided 

 they could be protected against the depredations of poachers, 

 be a matter of any difficulty. The colonies of these animals 

 require only what is afforded by vast realms of our wilder- 

 nesses — flowinor streams of moderate fall with timber upon 

 their banks. They are not particular as to the species, so 

 that swift-growing kinds of trees such as the poplars may 



