166 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



Long Branch Creek [Rocky Alts.] showed 50 beavers in 1908 and 

 3,000 in 191 8, indicating an average yearly increase for the period 

 of about 50 per cent. This, however, is based only on estimates. 

 In order to be conservative, an annual increase of 25 per cent has 

 been assumed until such time as more accurate information can be 

 obtained." The determination of this normal rate of increase, so 

 important in any rational plan providing for perpetuating the stock 

 and for harvesting annually a fair number of beaver skins, certainly 

 merits additional held study. 



Commercial Value and Possibilities 



Beaver as Human Food. I have made it a practice to eat the 

 meat of the beavers that I have taken from time to time in Minne- 

 sota and in my opinion it is a very palatable food. It was prepared 

 in the same manner as venison. A little care is necessary in skinning 

 the animal so as to avoid tainting the meat with the castoreum. In 

 the words of Seton, " The flesh is good and the tail is considered a 

 delicacy. It tastes like ' calf's head ' with marrow dressing." The 

 .fat has a delicate and. to my palate, a slightly sweet taste. 



Castoreum. The castoreum is a substance produced by a pair of 

 glands in the anal region. It has a peculiar odor which, to me at 

 least, is neither strong nor unpleasant. It is used in the manufacture 

 of perfume, and in medicine it is said to be used as a stimulant and 

 as an antispasmodic. It has been known for over two thousand years 

 and in olden times was considered as more or less of a panacea. Its 

 commercial value at the present time is probably from $6.00 to 

 $10.00 a pound, an amount obtainable from about a dozen beavers, 

 when it is in the form of the castoreum glands removed entire and 

 dried. I have weighed two pair of the dried glands and this esti- 

 mate is based on this fact. 



Professor Carl Yoegtlin, Professor of Pharmacology, U. S. Public 

 Health Service, Washington, D. C. writes under date of March 30, 

 1922 : " Castoreum has been used years ago as a sedative and anti- 

 spasmodic for hysteria, but its use for this purpose as for any other 

 it may have had in medicine has been discontinued. There is really 

 no justification for the sale of this drug." 



Revenue from Beaver. Beaver is one of our most highly prized 

 furs. As popularly known in coats, collars, muffs and other articles 

 of apparel it consists of only the dense underfur, the long, coarse 

 overhair having been removed by plucking. The part played by 



