156 CASTOROLOGIA. 



on the evidence of IVIr. Lewis H. Morgan, we repeat the following 

 extraordinary example : — 



" In spring, summer and fall, the usual place of setting traps for 

 beavers, is upon the dam. The trapper avails himself of the well- 

 known habit of this dam builder to repair, at once, any breach made 

 in the structure, over which his supervision is constant. Captain 

 Wilson, before referred to, on one occasion, set three traps in this 

 manner on the Grass Lake dam, using stakes instead of the pole 

 slide, with the following results : Two days afterwards he found, 

 on going to the traps, the three breaches fully repaired. Two of the 

 traps held each a beaver, and both drowned ; but notwithstanding 

 the calamity that had befallen them, other beavers had finished their 

 work. The third trap had disappeared from sight. He found the 

 chain still held by the stake, which showed, on running it up, that 

 the trap was buried in the breach made in the dam, under the ma- 

 terials used in its repair. Upon drawing it out, he discovered a duck 

 in the trap, which had been caught and drowned, and that both the 

 duck and the trap had been carried by the beavers into the breach 

 and there buried." 



The beaver possesses not only indomitable perseverance, but for 

 its size has very great strength, and these, together with its shortness 

 of limb, make it difficult to hold in a trap. For this reason the 

 hunter aims either to drown the animal, or to catch it securely by 

 the hind foot, which is proportionately large. Sometimes the beaver 

 gets its fore foot into the trap, and instead of rushing into deep water 

 and drowning, it struggles to escape even if the limb or part of it be 

 lost in the struggle. When, however, as is not unfrequently the 

 case, the hunter finds the beaver alive in the trap, it is completely 

 tamed through exhaustion and despair, and may with safety be 

 handled and taken from the trap. The beaver in its wild state re- 

 cognizes man as an enemy, and constantly seeks to escape from his 

 presence, and though in captivity this fear is forgotten, yet it must 

 always be considered most timid and shy. 



The great value once attached to the beaver, and the popular 



