152 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
ence in urging protection for the conservers of 
water. 
Another and seldom considered result of beavers’ 
work is the effect it has on the topography of a 
country. Fresh streams and rivers are made and 
old ones diverted to an extraordinary extent by the 
building of dams and consequent forming of ponds. 
Even new springs are brought to the surface by 
the pressure of the water in these ponds. Land- 
slides are prevented by reducing the force of streams, 
and in many ways quite unknown to us the con- 
tinued work of the beaver has had its varied effects 
on the land. 
The whole question of preserving the beaver 
should receive most serious attention, for even 
apart from the sentimental side which deserves 
consideration, the practical value of the animals is 
undeniable. The idea of protecting the beaver is 
of long standing. As far back as 1634 in the 
Jesuit Relations, there are the following paragraphs : 
“ We (the Jesuits) shall be able to instruct them 
(the Indians) easily and Beaver will greatly multiply. 
These animals are more prolific than our sheep in 
France, the females bearing as many as five or six 
each year. But when the savages find a lodge of 
them they kill all, great and small, male and 
female. There is danger that they will finally 
exterminate the species in this region (Three 
Rivers) as has happened among the Hurons who 
have not a single beaver, going elsewhere to buy 
