AMERICAN BEAVER. 357 



pounds of its name. We have indeed, examined several localities, some 

 of which are not seventy miles from Charleston, where we were assured 

 the remains of old Beaver dams existed thirty-five years ago. Baetram, in 

 his visit to Florida in 1778, (Travels, p. 281,) speaks of it as at that time 

 existing in Georgia and East Florida. It has, however, become a scarce 

 species in all the Atlantic States, and in some of them has been entirely 

 extirpated. It, however, may still be found in several of the less culti- 

 vated portions of many of our States. Dr. Dekay was informed that in 

 1815 a party of St. Regis Indians obtained three hundred Beavers in a 

 few weeks, in St. LawTence county, N. Y. In 1827 we were shown seve- 

 ral Beaver-houses in the north-western part of New York, where, al- 

 though we did not see the animals, we observed signs of their recent la- 

 bours. Dekav supposes, (N. Y. Fauna, p. 78,) that the Beaver does not at 

 present exist south of certain localities in the State of Xew York. This 

 is an error. Only two jears ago we received a foot of one, the animal 

 having been caught not twenty miles from Ashville in North Carolina. 

 We saw in 1839 several Beaver-lodges a few miles west of Peter's 

 Mountain in Virginia, on the head'waters of the Tennessee River, and 

 observed a Beaver swimming across the stream. There is a locality 

 within twenty miles of Milledgeville, Georgia, where Beavers are still 

 found. Our friend, Major Logan, residing in Dallas county, Alabama, 

 informed us that they exist on his plantation, and that within the last 

 few years a storekeeper in the immediate vicinity purchased twenty or 

 thirty skins annually, from persons residing in his neighbourhood. 



We were invited to visit this portion of Alabama to study the habits 

 of the Beaver, and to obtain specimens. Some years ago we shot one 

 near Henderson, Kentucky, in Canoe Creek ; it was regarded as a 

 curiosity, and probably none have been seen in that section of the 

 country since. We have heard that the Beaver ^vas formerly found near 

 New Orleans, but we never saw one in Louisiana. This species exists 

 on the Arkansas River, in the streams running from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and along their whole range on both sides ; we have traced it as 

 far as the northern boundaries of Mexico, and it is no doubt found much 

 farther south along the mountain range. Thus it appears that the Bea- 

 ver once existed on the whole continent of North America, north of the 

 Tropic of Cancer, and may still occur, although in greatly diminished 

 numbers, in many localities in the wild and uncultivated portions of our 

 country ; w^e are nevertheless under the impression, that in the Southern 

 States the Beaver was seldom found in those ranges of country where 

 the musk-rat does not exist, hence we think it could never have been 

 abundant in the alluvial lands of Carolina and Georgia, as the localities 



