36G ME. E. BEOWN ON THE BEAVEE. 



that the animal itself had been found. The fact of the matter is, 

 he could have found abundance not far from his own door. Near 

 Victoria, in Mr. Yales's Swamp, and in one near Dr. Tolmie's, are 

 several beavers ; and on the road to Cadborough Bay there are, in 

 a small stream near where the road crosses, the remains of an old 

 dam. In the interior they are almost everywhere abundant and 

 on the increase. In a swampy lake near the mouth of the Co- 

 wichan Lake we found many ; and an extensive swamp near the 

 entrance of the Puntledge Lake was a great stronghold. On 

 Young's Creek *, flowing into the same lake, were many dams. In 

 the spring of 1860, when crossing the island from Fort Eupert to 

 the head of Quatseeno Sound with some Indians, a great portion 

 of our route lay among these beaver-ponds and dams. All through 

 this district beavers swarm. The camps of the Indians were full 

 of them ; and the women laid before us the daintiest pieces of the 

 meat, or exhibited to their white visitor all sorts of curiosities in 

 the shape of foetal beavers and beaver's teeth, with which they 

 were gambling, using marked ones in much the same manner as 

 our dice. At the Hudson Bay Company's Fort we lived upon 

 beaver during that spring — beaver roasted and beaver broiled; 

 beaver tail and beaver joint ; beaver morning, noon, and night ! 

 In regard to the beavers' houses, I am forced to come to the 

 conclusion either that travellers who have written regarding the 

 beaver in the country east of the Rocky Mountains have woe- 

 fully taken advantage of a traveller's license, have listened to 

 mere hearsay wonders without seeing for themselves, or that the 

 habits of the beaver differ much in different parts of the country. 



It is only after they have been pointed out to you that the 

 "houses" can be recognized, as they seem like loose bundles of 

 sticks lying on the water f. In a recent account of the Beaver 

 in the British provinces in North America by an anonymous 

 writer J, the houses are described as being exactly the same as I 

 have seen them in the West, and not plastered domes. The 

 vigilance of the little builders is so great that it is rarely, unless 

 closely watched for a long time, that. they can be seen. A passing 

 traveller rarely surprises them at their work. 



* See the author's map and the memoir Das Inner e der Vancouver Insel in 

 Petermann's Qeographische Mittheilungen, 1869, S. 87. 



t The " house '' in the Zoological Gardens, London, corresponds with this 

 description. 



X ' Land and Water,' March 18()8. 



