OLOGIA. 



.e beaver we must not overlook its ser- 

 jupply. "Water is as indispensable to the 

 , the former was better adapted to preserve 

 . The dams were often a mile in length and 

 jservoirs comparable only to great lakes, and it 

 jreak away these dams without materially alter- 

 -ect. Droughts and parched lands soon followed in 

 . once were beautiful lakelets and abundance of veget- 

 .ne banks of the Rocky Mountains where now our settle- 

 quickly being planted, it is reported that the beaver has 

 jtected expressly to preserve the water supply. 



Where beaver colonies had lived for many years undisturbed, 

 j.e shallow waters above the dam became gradually overgrown with 

 vegetation, and this with the accumulation of -chips, branches, leaves 

 and other vegetable refuse, has given us many a rich acre. It is an 

 interesting fact of local history, that the name of the Indian village 

 which occupied the present site of the city of Montreal, is equivalent 

 to the English " Beaver Meadow," while, both in the eastern and 

 western suburbs of Montreal, the evidences of beaver meadows are 

 unmistakable, and where now is the busy thoroughfare known as 

 Craig street, once was the beaver canal. 



Indeed, it is not asserting too much for the past greatness of the 

 beaver trade, to say, that where the early traders halted and built 

 their trading posts or forts, there civilization has progressed, and 

 thus unconsciously, the foundations of our magnificent cities were 

 laid, while some can claim a gradual development, direct from the 

 early beaver colony. 



