INTRODUCTION 



I 



^^His people of nearly all classes and ages appear to 

 ^^Hbe interested in the life and habits of the 

 I^Hbeaver, to provide a book on the subject free 

 from exaggeration, and not too technical ; secondly, 

 to call attention to the question of protecting the 

 most interesting animal to-day extant. We are 

 apt to drift along so busied by our own affairs 

 that the future is too often forgotten, as indeed 

 is the immediate present, except in so far 

 as it intimately affects us and our daily lives. 

 Occasionally we wake up — some of us at least — and 

 realise vdth a shock that something is slipping 

 from our grasp, that the world is in imminent 

 danger of losing some particular and interesting 

 form of life, for once a species is gone no power of 

 man will ever recall it. If our awakening is not 

 too late, and our energies are sufficient, we make a 

 great cry that is heard far and near and the species 

 is perhaps saved. If our cry is only half- 

 hearted, the disappearance of the bird or animal 

 is arrested, and we are satisfied ; but apathy 

 follows only too often, and then more than likely 



R.B. B 



