BEAVEES. 



These industrious creatures have always attracted so 

 much interest and attention that it is to be regretted 

 that their numbers are so greatly diminishing, and at no 

 distant period we fear that the species may become ex- 

 tinct in the new world. Although abundant enough at 

 one time, they are now nearly or entirely extinct in 

 Europe ; their habits, mode of living, and constructing 

 their dwellings expose them at once to the hunter, whose 

 insatiable desire to obtain their valuable skins causes him 

 to unnecessarily destroy a whole colony at once ; this, added 

 to the increased population and advancement of civilization, 

 is the cause of the gradual disappearance of these intelligent 

 constructors of dams. It must be admitted that a colony 

 of beavers capable of bringing down several trees, each of 

 nearly 4 ft. in circumference, during a single night and 

 causing them to fall across a stream, and thereby diverting 

 the current of a river, might give a considerable amount 

 of trouble and annoyance in a well-cultivated and much^ 

 inhabited country, especially if water-mills and other 

 useful inventions set up lower down the said river were 

 rendered useless, and perhaps the property built on the 

 right bank of the stream might some day be found on the 

 left ; in such a case the poor beavers would soon be called 

 upon to account for their lawless though innocent pro- 

 ceedings, and no doubt, without judge or jury, would be 



96 



