BE A VERS. 99 



On the Continent beavers were exterminated from Holland in 1825. In 

 France evidence of the former abundance of these animals is afforded by their 

 buried remains, and by the names of places like Bievre and Beuvray. Within the 

 historic period the Rhine and its tributaries appear to have been their last strong- 

 holds, although they had become very rare during the last century. Beavers are, 

 however, still met with in the Ehone and its affluents, where M. Mayet, writing in 

 1889, estimates that from twenty-five to thirty are annually killed. In the 

 Pleistocene period the beaver ranged into Italy as far south as Rome, but there is 

 no evidence of its existence there since that date. The lake-villages of Switzerland 

 afford evidence of the abundance of beavers in that country during the prehistoric 

 period ; and in the early part of this century they still lingered on in the Rhine, 

 one having been captured in the year 1829. In North- Western Germany the 

 Moselle and the Maas were formerly noted for the number of their beavers. The 

 Lippe one of the tributaries of the Rhine was likewise a well-known haunt ; and 

 at Kettlinghausen and Paderborn on that river, there were large colonies of these 

 animals at the beginning of the present century. Again, in the Elbe basin, there 

 was a considerable colony near Magdeburg in 1829, while at Wittenberg and 

 Kahnert these animals were abundant in 1801, while no less than eight individuals 

 were observed in the latter locality so late as 1878. In Bohemia, the valley of 

 the Moldau, forming the upper part of the Elbe basin, abounded in beavers up 

 to the year 1848, although this was largely owing to strict protection. On 

 the upper Danube and its tributaries there were numerous colonies in the first 

 half of this century, one of the most noted being on the small river Amper, to the 

 north of Munich, which was in a flourishing condition between the years 1837 

 and 1846. Beavers also existed on the lower Danube in Austria, Hungary, and 

 Turkey ; and they have been recorded from the upper Euphrates Valley and the 

 Caucasus. On the lower Danube a colony is preserved by the Emperor of 

 Austria. 



From the Caucasus the range of the beaver extended through Russia, Poland, 

 and Livonia, to Lapland and Scandinavia. Beavers were abundant in the Tereck 

 Valley to the north of the Caucasus in 1842 ; and in Livonia they were so common 

 in 1724, that their dams were a serious inconvenience to the district. The last 

 Livonian beaver was, however, killed in 1841 ; but a few were still living in the 

 Dnieper and the Svislocz (Government of Minsk) in 1889. The Russian rivers 

 Dwina and Petchora, respectively flowing into the White Sea and Arctic Ocean, 

 were inhabited by beavers till 1842. Through Silesia it is believed that these 

 animals extended as far east as Amurland ; but in the valley of the Obi they are 

 now extinct in the Irtish, although still lingering in the Pelyin ; and they have 

 quite disappeared from the Yenesei in Eastern Silesia. In Poland and Lithuania 

 a. few may still survive ; but the last Lapland beaver was killed about 1830. In 

 Scandinavia three considerable colonies still exist near Arendal in Norway, the 

 number of individuals living in 1883 being about one hundred ; these colonies are 

 strictly preserved. In Denmark we only know of the existence of the beaver by 

 the evidence of its remains buried in the peat-mosses. It may be added that in 

 1874 the Marquis of Bute introduced beavers into the island from which he takes 

 his title, where they have since thriven. 



