CHAPTER II. 



Indian Legends of Giant Beavers — Discovery of Trogontherium, 

 Cu\'ier's Gigantic Beaver — A Search for the Fossil Beaver op 

 North America — Castoroides Ohioensis — Reflections on the 

 Form and Characteristics of these Animals — The Changes of 

 Fauna in Recent Times. 



We have already told how the Indians, basing their arguments 

 on material phenomena, reasoned as to the formation of the various 

 features of the earth, and by introducing the industrious beaver, 

 they explained many of the characteristics of the landscape which to 

 them appeared like the beaver's work ; but, the proportions being 

 so disparaging as to necessitate the conception of animals with more 

 power and knowledge, we find a belief in the Indian mind concern- 

 ing giant beavers and their herculean w^ork. Many of these stories 

 occur in the Eskimo legends, and the range may be said to extend 

 over the whole of North America, and to occupy a foremost place 

 in the thought of all its var^ang inhabitants. Pitetot records a 

 legend of the West, wherein the tooth of the great beaver was made 

 into an adze for hollowing out logs of wood for canoes. In the 

 Algonquin Eegends of New England, Chas. Leland introduces Ouah- 

 beet, the giant beaver, the clapping of whose tail made the thunders; 

 and with all the strength of local coloring is told its various accom- 

 plishments towards shaping the earth. The Micmacs recognized 

 the site of a beaver-dam which once flooded the Annapolis Valley ; 

 and they say the bones of the beavers wdio built this dam may still 

 be found, and the teeth are six inches across. According to a tra- 

 dition of the Ojibwaj^s, there was an immense beaver in some part 

 of Lake Superior. The Indians point out an island in the lake, 

 about two miles long, and one and a third broad, and say that the 

 beaver spoken of was the same size. Another story relates how 



