28 CASTOROtOGIA. 



city, and the effort to prevent careless slaughter and thus prolong the 

 existence of the last few colonies, by framing protective laws and 

 granting exclusive privileges of hunting ; but this resulted only 

 in heightening the ingenuity of the hunters and actually hastened 

 the extinction of the animal. In a German charter in 1103, the 

 right of hunting beavers was conferred along with other huntings and 

 fishings ; and a Bull of Pope I^ucius III, in the year 1182, bestowed 

 upon a monastery the property in the beavers within their bounds ; 

 while we read of beaver-reserves in Poland in the i6th century and 

 know of some late settlements in France. A Prussian royal edict, 

 dated 20th January 1714, concerned the beavers in the Elbe, while 

 one subsequent, issued at Berlin on the twenty -fourth day of March, 

 1725, insisted on the protection of the beavers, under a penalty of 

 no less than a sum equalling two hundred dollars. But the laws of 

 man made little difference to the laws of nature, and no artificial 

 device could prolong appreciably the life of the Beaver in unnatural 

 surroundings, for to-day it is a matter of amazement that a few colo- 

 nies yet remain in the remote wilds of Scandinavia, and it seems re- 

 markable that Siberia should still send a few beaver skins to market. 

 A study of the history of the beaver in the British Isles will serve to 

 illustrate more fully this question of beaver extermination, and the 

 lesson studied here on a small scale may be applied to more impor- 

 tant issues. 



Archaeologists, through their researches, have made known so 

 perfectly the conditions of the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain 

 that their day comes almost within historic range, and we can claim 

 nearly as intimate acquaintance with their habits and manners as if 

 they had left written histories. The remnants of the " dug out " 

 canoes and the discovery of the teeth of the beaver alongside of the 

 rude stone implements, is strong evidence of a condition of things in 

 England very similar to what was found existing in Canada only 

 three centuries ago, and survivals of which may even yet be found 

 among some of our Indian tribes. The fact that bones of the beaver 

 have been discovered in so many parts of England and Scotland, 

 shows a very wide distribution, and doubtless, the animal ranged 

 formerly over the whole of Great Britain. Gradually civilization 



