HARDY ON THE BEAVER IN NOVA SCOTIA. 17 



Art. II. On the Beaver in ^ova Scotia. By Captain 



Hardy. 



(Read December 3, 1866.) 



The Beavers, both of Europe and America, have been so often 

 and so accurate!}^ described scientifically by modern natiu-alists, 

 that a recapitulation of their characteristics would be a useless 

 insertion in the proceedings of this Society. With regard to 

 the Castor Canadensis, the only and widely distributed species 

 of the American continent, the remarks of Professor Baird of 

 the Smithsonian Institute, in his report of the mammals of the 

 Pacific railroad routes, summing up the evidence of naturalists 

 on the comparative anatomy of the Castors of the old and new 

 worlds, appear worthy of note as establishing a satisfactory 

 distinction. The question has been elaborately discussed, and 

 the results of many comparisons shew considerable diflierence 

 of arrangement of bones of the skull, a slight difference as 

 regards size and colour, and an important one as regards both 

 the form of the castoreum glands, and the composition of the 

 castoreum itself; Professor Owen, Bach, and others, agreeing 

 on a separation of species. Hence, instead of being termed 

 Castor Fiber ( Var. Americanus,) the American Beaver now, 

 (and but recently,) is designated as Castor Canadensis, so 

 termed rather than G. Americanus, from the prior nomenclature 

 of Kuhl. 



From its former wide distribution in America, co-extensive 

 with the whole northern continent, it may be readily inferred 

 that a country like Xova Scotia, abounding in all the conditions 

 necessary to its existence — rivers, brooks, and swampy lakes — 

 should have been thickly populated by this interesting animal 

 — a fact borne out by the prevalence of such names as Beaver- 

 bank, Beaver-harbour, and the numerous Beaver-lakes and 

 Beaver-rivers scattered round the Province ; but so persecuted 

 was it a short time since, for its far for the hat-making trade — 

 the market so near, and its haunts so accessible and so easy of 

 observation, that it is strange to find the beaver still living in 

 Nova Scotia, and, since the change of fashion from the use of its 

 fur, to that of silk in hat-making, rapidly multiplying. 

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