Adirondack Beaver 165 



Experiment Station, has kindly sent me the following memorandum 

 in regard to the Wyoming beavers, which he received from Dr. 

 George Bird Grinnell of New York City : ' Yellowstone National 

 Park records say : ' Eighteen beaver caught at Yancey s August 14 

 to September 11, 1907, by T. Elwood (Billy) Hofer and shipped by 

 express to J. S. Whipple, Old Forge, N. Y., for New York State, 

 and four died enroute.' This is taken from Mr. Chester Lindsley's 

 record of animals shipped from the Park. Billy Hofer caught and 

 shipped many other animals." The most complete account of the 

 re-establishment and history of the beaver in the Adirondacks is that 

 by Radford ('07). 



According to E. T. Seton ('09, Vol. 1, pp. 448-449) the Wyoming 

 beaver represents a geographic race {Castor canadensis frondator), 

 which differs from the Canadian form in being " larger and paler 

 than the type, with scaly part of tail shorter than twice the width." 

 Should permission to take beaver be granted it would be of interest 

 if trappers would save the skulls of the animals and send them to 

 the Roosevelt Wild Life Station in order that material might be 

 available for possible evidence of crossing of the two races. 



Estimates of Numbers. I have before stated that estimates of 

 numbers of beavers in any considerable area cannot be made with 

 any great degree of accuracy without much time and careful observa- 

 tion. The results given below represent merely the closest estimates 

 that can be made in the circumstances. They have at least the virtue 

 of being based on certain observed and recorded facts and to that 

 extent are removed from, the realm of pure guesswork. The best 

 available index to the beaver population is the number of occupied 

 lodges, and these are the basis for the figures that are to follow. 



I shall first refer to the region covered by my own investigations 

 and consider the figures representing the lodges and the dams (in 

 repair) recorded by myself, and having in this connection estab- 

 lished the ratio of lodges to dams I shall subsequently use this ratio 

 in making an estimate for Herkimer and Hamilton counties and 

 for the Adirondack region generally, based on the number of dams 

 reported by the District Rangers in 1919 and 1920. The distribution 

 of these dams had been plotted on maps in the office of the Superin- 

 tendent of Forests at Albany, and these maps were kindly loaned me 

 by Assistant Superintendent W. G. Howard. Lodges had not been 

 reported. 



My own maps accompanying this article (maps 1 and 2), were 



