312 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Habitat. Borders of streams, ponds and lakes. 
Distribution in New York. The beaver is probably nearly exterminated 
if not quite extinct-in New York. Concerning the animal’s status I have 
nothing to add to the account given by Merriam in 1884. 
Principal records. De Kay: “The beaver, whose skins once formed so 
important an article of commerce to this state as to have been incorporated 
in the armorial bearings of the old colony, is now nearly extirpated 
within its limits . . . In the summer of 1840 we traversed those almost 
interminable forests on the highlands separating the sources of the 
Hudson and the St Lawrence, and included in Hamilton, Herkimer. and 
a part of Essex counties. In the course of our journey we saw several 
beaver signs as they are termed by the hunters. The beaver has been 
so much harassed in this state that it has ceased making dams, and 
contents itself in making large excavations in the banks of streams. 
Within the past year (1841) they have been seen on Indian and Cedar 
rivers, and at Pashungamah on Tupper’s lake; and although they are 
not numerous, yet they are still found in scattered families in the northern 
part of Hamilton, the southern part of St Lawrence and the western part 
of Essex counties. Through the considerate attention of Mr A, McIntyre 
those yet existing in the southern part of Franklin co. are carefully 
preserved from the avidity of the hunter and there probably the last of the 
species in the Atlantic states will be found” (’42, p. 73-74). 
Merriam: “That the beaver was once abundant in all parts of the Adi- 
rondacks is attested by the numerous remains and effects of their dams, 
but at present they are so exceedingly rare that few people know 
that they still exist here . . . During the fall of 1880 a beaver was caught 
on Raquette river between the Upper Saranac and Big Tupper’s lake 
and about a mile below the ‘Sweeney carry’ ... Subsequent to this 
date saplings were cut in the neighborhood showing that another was at 
work there... At present there is a small colony of beavers on a 
stream that empties into the west branch of the St Regis river. It is 
probably the colony referred to by De Kay in 1842 as ‘yet existing in 
the southern part of Franklin co.’” (84d, p. 155-58). 
Mearns: “ When I was a boy the remains of a beaver-dam were plainly 
visible at Bog Meadow pond, in Orange co. When this pond was raised a 
few years ago to supply the town waterworks at Highland falls the dam 
was submerged, and with it disappeared the last vestige of the beaver, 
long extinct in the [Hudson] highlands” (98a, p. 351-52). 
