3(2 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. Mclntyre 

 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). 



