246 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



sovereign, who was enabled to give permission for the 

 killing of several individuals on large estates, or even 

 to permit the proprietors to kill the whole number of 

 animals on an island or enclosed property, thus putting 

 some of the colonies, like the one at Aamli, entirely in 

 the power of the owner. Moreover, although slaughter is 

 entirely forbidden on Crown or municipal lands, beavers 

 might be killed to any extent, and apparently in any 

 number, on private estates where they inflicted appreciable 

 damage. 



Two much more effectual statutes have, however, come 

 into operation: the one, dated August 31st, 1894, pro- 

 tecting all the beavers in the Amt of Sondre Bergenhus 

 till the end of 1904, and the other, dated September 3rd, 

 1895, doing the same for the colony of Aamli till the end 

 of 1905. The penalty for illegally killing beaver is a fine 

 of eighty kronors (about £4. 10s.), which can be inflicted 

 on all the participators in the offence. 



The chief food of the beaver in Norway consists of the 

 fresh bark of deciduous trees, more especially the aspen, 

 the larger branches being barked, but the twigs consumed 

 entire, and the coarse bark of the trunk generally rejected. 

 For winter use small branches are sunk near the entrance 

 to the lodge, but no store of stripped bark is collected. 

 Most of the trees felled are situated close to the water, 

 with beaten tracks leading to them from the lodge, but 

 occasionally some are chosen a considerable distance away 

 from the river. The trees are gnawed all round until 

 the portion left is so thin that the stem breaks from its 

 own weight, the stump remaining being generally about 

 half a yard in length, and terminating in a point like a 

 pencil, as does the lower end of the felled stem. Small 

 trunks or branches are, however, gnawed in a slanting 



