INTRODUCTION 
THE object of this little book is two-fold : first, 
as people of nearly all classes and ages appear to 
be interested in the life and habits of the 
beaver, to provide a book on the subject free 
from exaggeration, and not too technical ; secondly, 
to call attention to the question of protecting the 
most interesting animal to-day extant. We are 
apt to drift along so busied by our own affairs 
that the future is too often forgotten, as indeed 
is the immediate present, except in so far 
as it intimately affects us and our daily lives. 
Occasionally we wake up—some of us at least—and 
realise with a shock that something is slipping 
from our grasp, that the world is in imminent 
danger of losing some particular and interesting 
form of life, for once a species is gone no power of 
man will ever recall it. If our awakening is not 
too late, and our energies are sufficient, we make a 
great cry that is heard far and near and the species 
is perhaps saved. If our cry is only half- 
hearted, the disappearance of the bird or animal 
is arrested, and we are satisfied; but apathy 
follows only too often, and then more than likely 
R.B. B 
