Wonders of Nature and Art seems to have not 

 only collected all the fictions into which other 

 writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly 

 improved on them that little remains to be added 

 to his account of the beaver beside a vocabulary 

 of their language, a code of their laws, and a 

 sketch of their religion, to make it the most 

 complete natural history of that animal." 



One might read almost the entire mass of 

 printed matter concerning the beaver without 

 obtaining correct information about his manners 

 and customs or an accurate description of his 

 works and without getting at the real character 

 of this animal. The actual life and character of 

 the beaver, however, the work which he does, the 

 unusual things which he has accomplished, are 

 really more interesting and place the beaver on 

 a higher plane than do all the fictitious tales and 

 exaggerated accounts written concerning him. 



Mr. Lewis H. Morgan in his " American Beaver 

 and his Works " says : " No other animal has at- 

 tracted a larger share of attention or acquired by 

 his intelligence a more respectable position in 

 the public estimation. Around him are the dam, 



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