1960 The Zoologist — January, 1870. 



frequently near the " stent," until the beavers come out to repair the 

 broken dam, when they are easily shot. If "drawing" be delennined 

 on it must be done very noiselessly, or the beavers will not leave the 

 house, which they will otherwise generally do on finding that the 

 water is falling too rapidly. If the beavers are long in making their 

 appearance at the " stent" another plan is resorted to, which, although 

 of more trouble to the hunter, is generally more certain of success. 

 The beavers have usually two passages leading into the house, which 

 are termed " angles" by the trappers : these, which are under water, 

 have to be found out and carefully barred by driving stout stakes 

 into the mud at the opening of each passage, which effectually cuts 

 off the retreat of ihe beavers : the house is then chopped open at the 

 top and the inmates either shot or knocked on the head with a 

 tomahawk. 



The settlers usually catch them iu strong iron traps, such as are 

 used for catching foxes. These have to be set with great care, as the 

 beaver, if not immediately drowned by the weight of the trap keeping 

 it under water, will soon " cut out " — i. e. gnaw ofl' its leg. To catch a 

 beaver by the fore leg the trap is placed either four or five inches 

 under water, and to catch it by the hind leg it must be either eight or 

 nine inches under water. In either case the trap must be placed on 

 the side of the house, and the stake, to which the trap is fastened, 

 must be driven into the mud as far from the bottom of the house as 

 the trapper can reach, so as to prevent the beaver carrying the trap 

 on to the top of the house above water. If all this is carefully 

 attended to there is not much fear of success, for the beaver as soon 

 as trapped endeavours to get the trap above water, but failing in this 

 tries to drag the trap into the house, at the bottom of which the chaiu 

 becomes entangled and the poor animal is soon drowned. 



On the other hand want of care not only lacks success, but must 

 entail great misery on the beavers themselves. I well remember on 

 one occasion a settler visiting his traps and finding that he had taken 

 a leg each from seven different beavers, but this, I have no doubt, 

 was not entirely the fault of the trapper, who was an " old hand," as 

 the rivers in Newfoundland fall and rise so rapidly in the spring and 

 fall, that it is sometimes almost impossible to keep the traj) always the 

 same depth under water. Thave known the traps repeatedly thrown 

 by the beavers pressing a short stick on the pan, but this may have 

 occurred either designedly or accidentally. Mr. Brown gives an 

 anecdote of the sagacity of the beaver, which I here introduce. He 



