1970 The Zoologist— January, 1870. 



and the lower class of half-breeds. The world is fast filling in ; the 

 emigrant, with his bullock-team and his plough, is fast destroying all 

 the romance of the far West — fast filling up with the stern pruse of 

 the plough and the reaping-machine and the whistle of steam what 

 was once only claimed by the pleasant poetry of the songs of the 

 vnyageur, the coureur des bois — the hunters and trappers of the great 

 companies ! But perhaps it is belter after all ! 



The beaver is easily domesticated, and learns to eat any vegetable 

 matter, but requires water occasionally. One kept at Fort M'Leod 

 got blind ; but if it got access to water, it laved some on its eyes, and 

 generally iu an hour quite recovered its sight. It used to gather 

 carpenter's shavings together, and carry them to the door: if the door 

 was shot, it forced them up against it, finishing with a slap of its tail, 

 as if it were building a dam. It had a great antipathy to the Indians. 

 It would come into the Indian Hall, where the natives were seated, as 

 is their wont, back to the wall. It would first lake their fire-bag, then 

 their axe, and so on until it had carried everything to the door, greatly 

 to the amusement of the Indians. It would then attempt vigorously 

 to eject the owner of the articles. Its "weakness" for gnawing 

 exhibited itself in a very unpleasant manner; for occasionally, in the 

 morning, the whole of the furniture was prostrate, the beaver having 

 gnawed through the legs of the tables and chairs ! 



This leads me to remark that the beaver might be easily naturalized 

 again in Britain ; and though I cannot recommend them in the light 

 of a drawing-room pet, yet I can conceive no more pleasant inhabitant 

 of our lakes and rivers.* We must remember that at one lime the 

 beaver was an inhabitant of these islands, but became early extinct. 



This was, of course, not the Castor Canadensis, but the C. fiber, 

 Linn.; for the remains found in Britain, have now been decided to 

 belong to the latter species, which is, I believe, not yet altogether 

 extinct in Scandinavia. t We have, however, historical accounts of 

 its former abundance iu this country ; and I cannot better conclude 

 these desultory notices than by recapitulating the information we 

 possess regarding it as a former inhabitant of the British Isles, 

 referring for a more particular account of it as a Scottish animal, 

 extinct within historic periods, to Dr. Charles Wilson's ' Researches 

 on Castoreum and the Beaver iu Scotland.' The earliest notice of it 

 we know is in the ninth century, viz., in the Welsh Laws of Hywel 



* Vide ' Farmer,' April, 1868. 



t Nilsson : Skandinavisk Fauna, Fiiista Delen, Daggdjuren, ss. 400-427. 



