ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE BEAVER IN LIVONIA. 217 
The owner had obtained them from a postilion at Stackeln, who 
had that year trapped the Beavers from which they were taken. 
For some years these were believed to be the last representa- 
tives of the doomed race, until, in the autumn of 1840, on the 
estate of Neuhof, in the upper reaches of the Aa, east of Walk, a 
single Beaver was tracked and hunted, but without success. It 
had gnawed through strong willow trees, three or four inches 
thick, in the usual way, for its winter store of food. This Beaver 
disappeared from Neuhof, and fled from its eager pursuers yet 
farther up the stream towards the source of the Aa. At length, in 
the summer of 1841, on the borders of the crown-lands of Aa-hof, 
this sole surviving Beaver was shot by a gamekeeper, Neppert. 
It was veritably the last of its race, for since then diligent inquiry 
has revealed no traces of any Beavers in Livonia. 
By consulting the account-books of the druggists, and noting 
the prices of castoreum, a thoughtful observer might have foretold 
the gradual destruction and final extinction of the Beavers. For 
example, at Fellin, the price of castoreum per ounce was, in 1776, 
60 cop.; 1777, 1 r. 80 cop.; 1801, 3 r.; 1802, 3 r. 75 cop.; 1804, 
4r. 33 cop.; 1805, 5 r. 50 cop; 1807, 5 r. 71 cop.; 1880, 14 r.; 
the supply constantly diminishing, until at length foreign or 
Siberian castoreum was worth forty roubles per ounce. 
The demard failing, the high prices gradually fell, till in 
1876 it was twelve roubles an ounce. 
Strange to say, skins of the Livonian Beavers were not highly 
prized, and at most were only used by hatters; perhaps because 
the Beavers were almost always taken in summer, and the fur 
_ would not have attained its full beauty until the winter. The meat 
was utterly despised, and thrown away as unfit for use. Thus, 
neither fur nor flesh was the object of this deplorable destruc- 
tion, the sole cause of which was the rapid rise in the value of 
castoreum, then held to be a necessary of life. Had this drug 
only been earlier replaced by the medicaments which subse- 
quently came into use, the Beaver might to this day have been 
inhabiting Livonia, even though confined to one district, and 
protected by strict game-laws and the watchfulness of foresters 
and landowners. The Beaver is the first mammal of any size 
which has disappeared from the fauna of Livonia during the 
present century. Are the Bear, the Lynx, and the Squirrel to 
follow it before 1900? 
2F 
