INTRODUCTION 3 
What Colonel Roosevelt, Dr. W. T. Hornaday 
(of the New York Zoological Society), the 
Audubon Societies, the Museum of Natural 
History of New York and other organisations 
and individuals have done for birds, and some 
animals, should be done for the beaver. The 
perpetuation of the species could be carried on 
with so little trouble, and the results would repay 
the efforts ten-thousandfold. 
If this little book does anything to call attention 
to the question of adequate protection either in the 
United States, Canada, Newfoundland, and else- 
where, the many years of hard work will be more 
than amply repaid. In treating the subject I have 
avoided all mention of methods of trapping as it is 
intended as a constructive and not a destructive 
work. Someone will come after me who will no 
doubt treat the subject of beaver life far better and 
with greater thoroughness. That work will, I 
trust, be received with gratitude. In the mean- 
time those who are interested in the subject will 
perhaps experience some slight pleasure from this 
effort to call attention to the beaver, his work, 
and its far-reaching effects. 
Among those to whom I am indebted for 
information are many who have passed to the land 
of shadows, but have left behind them the results 
of their observations. I therefore offer my thanks, 
both to the living and the dead—most conspicuous 
among them being Lewis H. Morgan, for “The 
B2 
