1296 



ZOOI.OGICAI. SOCIETY BULLETIN 



BEAVER HOUSE ON BEIIGEK liR(JOK 



annually by more than 300.000. .Sometimes as 

 many as 10.000 visitors have crowded into the 

 hall, fifty feet by fifty feet, on a fine .Sunday. 

 The Aquarium was designed by Superintendent 

 Meehan, who also h;is supervision of the con- 

 struction of the permanent jilant. The Aqua- 

 rium in Fairmount Park is under the direction 

 of the Park Commissioners. The money for 

 building and maintenance is sup]3lied by the 

 City of Philadelphia. While not definitely set- 

 tled, plans are under consideration for a huge 

 cascade to fall from the top of old Fairmount 

 Hill into the open-air seal ])ool. a height of 

 eighty feet, and for an exhibit on the grounds 

 and perhaps in the buildings of pre-historic 

 dinosaurs and other monsters, fashioned in con- 

 crete after the jiattern of tliose in Germany. 



photo 



THE BE.WER IN SULLIVAN COUNTY. 

 NEW YORK. 



■■)■<■ .sli.ill kii„ir them hij Iheir icorks." 



TO introduce heavers into new territory and 

 four montlis later find that they have 

 felled trees, built houses, constructed 

 dams and taken up the usual activities of bea- 

 ver life, is to be quickly repaid for one's labors. 

 This is what has happened on the estate of Mr. 

 Ambrose Monell. In May. 191K Mr. MoncU 

 placed eight beavers on one of the small streams 

 on the extensive tract belonging to him in .Sulli- 

 van County, New York. 



The animals were lost to sight until their 

 presence was made known by their works, when 



it was found that they had 

 built four houses with dams, 

 in as many different places, 

 no two being nearer togeth- 

 er than one mile, the ex- 

 tremes being four miles 

 a)).irt as the water courses 

 Howed. The largest dam 

 situ.-ited on Bcrgcr Brook, 

 is about seventy-five yards 

 long .-ind has a shorter su|i- 

 ))orting dam immediately be- 

 low it. The house erected 

 by this family of beavers 

 rises from the water just 

 inside the rim of the dam 

 (See cut above.) 



.Another family located on 

 the Bush kill, a deeper 

 stream, built a higher dam. 

 with the house on the bank 

 fifty yards above it. (See 

 cuts on page 1297.) 



These beaver families were well established 

 when the writer visited them in June, 191.5, and 

 there is reason to suppose that they will in- 

 crease faster each year. As Mr. ^lonell's land^ 

 include several thousand acres of forest with 

 many brooks, the outcome of his ex))eriment 

 with beavers will be followed witii interest by 

 .ill conservators of wild life. 



The restoration of the beaver to the .\diron- 

 dacks has been a notable success. It will un- 

 doubtedly make itself at home on anv forest 

 stream where it can remain unmolested by man. 

 Beavers were once abundant in all our northern 

 forests and their skins were collected annually 

 bv thousands and sent to all countries where 

 furs are worn. 



Since the above was written at Mr. Mon- 

 ell's ])lace in .Tune. Mr. Edwin C. Kent of Tux- 

 edo, informs me that the beavers have built still 

 another dam on the Bushkill a quarter of a mile 

 above the original dam. and have flooded a large 

 |)art of the swamp. They have added consider- 

 ablv to the dam on Berger Brook and have 

 built .1 new liouse on the brook about a qu.irter 

 of a mile below the dam. 



The .activities of the beavers threaten to inter- 

 fere with the owner's plans for trout fishing, as 

 the dams already appear to harbor pickerel ra- 

 ther than trout. It is quite possible that these 

 beaver dams in creating larger bodies of water 

 will have the effect of modifying the character 

 of the local fish fauna. 



C. H. T. 



