72 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



hundred feet in length in a swamp about one hundred yards from the stream 

 of McMichael's creek. They are now on the bank of that stream on my 

 property, as is seen by their late cutting of the timber. There are at least 

 one hundred trees that have been cut by them, some quite large ones, and 

 some cut as late as last week." 



In a letter of later date Mr. Edinger gives further particulars as follows : 



"Your letter of January 30th received, and in reply relative to the beaver 

 would say that we do not know where they came from and do not know how 

 many there are. From the cutting done by them I would imagine there may 

 be six or eight. I have been informed there is a Park in N. J. about forty 

 miles from N. Y. City in which there are some beavers ; it may be possible 

 these may have escaped from there. McMichael's creek, on which these 

 beavers have located, rises in Tunkhannock township this county, flows 

 through Chestnuthill, Hamilton, and Stroud township, through the borough 

 of Stroudsburg and empties into Brodhead's creek. The latter empties in 

 the Del. River at the Water Gap, three miles from this town. We have not 

 seen any of the beavers but have tracked them by the late snow, and have 

 located them in under the bank of the stream (McMichael's creek) ; they 

 have quite a lot of wood for food at the mouth of their home, the bank is 

 from four to six feet higher than the creek. I have put notices on the prem- 

 ises forbidding trespassing under full penalty of the law. I don't think that 

 anybody will disturb them. The water in McMichael's creek at my farm and 

 where the beavers are is about fifty feet wide and from three to five feet in 

 depth. My farm is about two miles north of Stormsville, one mile east of 

 Kellersville, and about one mile southeast of Snydersville. Most of the 

 timber cut by them is swamp beech, white ash, and quaking asp. They use 

 mostly the bark of the white ash for food." 



I can see no other explanation of the presence of these beavers in Mc- 

 Michael's creek than the one given by Mr. Edinger. The natural waterway 

 connection between the AUamuchy preserve and Stroudsburg would be down 

 the Peques river to the Delaware and up that to Brodhead's creek. But 

 this would entail almost certain destruction. A somewhat safer course would 

 be across to the head of the Paulin's Kill and thence to the Delaware. An- 

 other route would be across the southwest border of Sussex Co. by Swarts- 

 wood Lake across the Kittatinny lakes region to the Delaware, overland. 

 Their dispersion over a similar hill and lake region in Sussex Co. northward 

 makes this not only the safer but the most natural route. 



Potter Co. — See notes under Clinton Co. 



Sullivan Ce. — "Jared Robinson caught 2 in the beaver dam, now called 

 'hay marsh,' 4 miles above Lopez between 1818 and 1820." — Behr, 1901. 

 Query : can this be the " Jerod Robison" who "caught two or three" in the 

 Kinzua creek region (see under McKean Co.) in 1839? It is not unlikely 



