7A T THE FAR WEST. 397 



again, or take the consequences. I accepted their interpretation 

 of our ill-luck, for that was the last time I visited the place, 

 as my duties carried me elsewhere ; yet I do not now regret my 

 experience on that lonely isle, which is sacred alone to water- 

 fowl and seals, the heavy clashing of waves and crags, and the 

 moaning or the screaming of the wind. 



The beaver is becoming abundant in some portions of the 

 country, especially in the wooded regions bordering the Pacific 

 Ocean, as very little trapping is done there, owing to the 

 cheapness of the fur and the fact that people have a more 

 settled business, but it is decreasing in British America, owing 

 to the numbers captured annually in traps. 



Another little creature found in the North-west, though not 

 strictly a fur animal, deserves mention, owing to its unique 

 position in the animal world. This species, which is known 

 to the Indians of the North-west coast by the names of 

 sewellel and showtl, is one of the most unique specimens of 

 the animal kingdom. It is certainly one of the least known 

 of the mammals of America, owing to its scarcity, peculiar 

 habits, and the want of opportunities to study its characteristics, 

 as its habitat is confined to a few isolated and barren sections 

 of the North-west, little frequented by the wandering tourist, 

 and rarely indeed by the scientific naturalist. 



Its geographical range is limited, being bounded on the 

 south by Oregon, and on the north by British Columbia, an 

 area embracing probably some eight degrees of latitude ; 

 while its eastward wandering is checked by the high, rolling 

 plateaus that lie directly east of the Cascade Range. Unlike 

 most of the quadrupeds of the North-west, it crosses this 

 towering range; and here it differs widely from other mammals, 

 for that chain is the most arbitrary on the continent in its 

 separation of animal life, and in this feature is, in all proba- 

 bility, equalled by no other mountains on the globe except the 

 Himalayas. It has not yet been found in the Rocky Mountains, 

 nor, so far as I can learn, east of the Blue Ridge, which runs 

 in a general south-westerly direction through Eastern Orecron, 



fj ** 



and Washington Territory. The probability of its being an 

 inhabitant of any other section of the continent except where it 



