100 RODENTS. 
Distribution of At the time of the discovery of America, the beaver of that 
the American continent had a wider distribution than any other mammal except 
Beaver. the puma. Its range extended from Alaska and the Hudson’s Bay 
district in the north, along the Atlantic seaboard as far south as Georgia and 
Northern Florida, and thence along the Gulf of Mexico as far as the Rio Grande in 
Texas, and also some distance into Mexico; while on the Pacific Coast it extended 
to California and Arizona. The desert and the prairie districts of the interior, as 
being unsuitable to its habits, were, however, of course, not tenanted by the beaver, 
which was necessarily confined to the valleys of the great rivers and lakes. 
Writing in 1877, Mr. C. A. Allen observes that “its present range, however, is 
much more restricted, very few being found east of the Mississippi River south of 
the great lakes, and it is everywhere less numerous than formerly. Some still 
remain in northern Maine and in the Adirondack region of New York, and 
probably some still survive thence southwards in the sparsely-settled districts to 
Alabama and Mississippi. A recent article states that they are still abundant in 
portions of Virginia. Their existence is in great abundance throughout the 
Atlantic States, and thence westward to the Pacific.” Since the date when this 
passage was penned, the extermination of the beaver appears to have gone on apace ; 
and Mr. H. T. Martin, writing in 1892, says that only a few colonies now linger in 
the United States, especially on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, while in Canada 
the numbers of the animal are vastly diminished. “ Along the watershed, between 
the Hudson’s Bay rivers and the St. Lawrence, in the upper waters of the Frazer 
and Peace Rivers, and along the Rocky Mountain Range, may be considered the last 
homes of the beaver.” Mr. Martin adds that “as to the ultimate destruction of 
the beaver no possible question can arise, and the evidences of approaching exter- 
mination can be seen only too plainly in the miles of territory exhibiting the 
decayed stump, the broken dam, and deserted lodge. The passing bear or wolverene 
tears open the lodge, partly in the vain hope of finding a meal; partly from habit ; 
the rising waters float the logs away, while the drifting ice in fall and spring 
gradually destroys the dam, till within a decade, where once the busy colony spent 
their happy domestic lives, no sign remains of all their wondrous toil.” 
Beavers are mainly nocturnal, and almost exclusively aquatic 
animals; although it is stated that during the summer they will 
sometimes make journeys of considerable length on land, when they subsist upon 
fruit and corn, instead of their usual diet of bark and twigs. They are likewise 
essentially social creatures, usually associating in larger or smaller colonies; 
although the few still remaining in the rivers of the Old World are—owing to the 
lack of companions—for the most part either solitary or in pairs. Needless to say, 
these animals are expert divers and swimmers; their movements in the water being 
graceful in the extreme, and effected almost entirely by the aid of their powerful and 
webbed hind-limbs. In addition to bark and twigs, they consume large quantities of 
the roots and stems of water-lilies and other aquatic plants. The young, usually from 
three to four in a litter, are produced at the close of the winter or early in the 
spring, in the shelter of the burrow or lodge, but 1t is not yet ascertained 
whether they are born with their eyes open or closed. Beavers do not hibernate, 
in the strict sense of the term, although during the depth of the winter they sleep 
Habitat. 
