154 



The Living Animals of the World 



with a colony ; but parts of the 

 Danube are believed to be the 

 chief haunt of the European beaver 

 at the present time. The American 

 beaver, though its range has 

 greatly contracted, is still sufficiently 

 numerous for its fur to be a valuable 

 item in the winter fur-sales. 



The beavers tail is flattened 

 like a paddle and covered with 

 scales ; its hind feet are webbed 

 between the toes ; it has sharp 

 claws, which aid it in scratching 

 up mud, and a thick, close fur, 

 with long brown hair above, and 

 a most beautiful and close under- 

 far, which, when the long hairs 

 have all been removed, forms the 

 beaver-fur of which hats were once 

 made, and trimmings for ladies' jackets and men's fur coats are now manufactured. There 

 are two separate lines of interest in connection with the animal — political and zoological. The 

 value of the fur was anciently such that, when the first French explorers began to search the 

 Canadian lakes, and later when the Hudson Bay Company succeeded to the French dominion, 

 the history of Canada was largely bound up with beaver-catching and the sale of the skins. In 

 the early days of the Company the " standard of trade " of the North-west was a beaver-skin. 

 For nearly a century the northern territories were organised, both under French and English rule, 

 with a view to the beaver trade. The beaver w-as, and is, the crest of the Canadian Dominion. 

 The beavers' engineering feats have for their object to keep up a uniform depth of water 

 in the streams where they live. On large rivers there is always enough water for the 



I'hoir, I,,, r. R,M] 



This is a photugfaiih of a swiniiuiijL,' beaver. Note the advant; 

 '' eddy in the stream. 



\Lich it has taken ..f tliC 



beaver to swim in safety from 

 it makes in the bank, just 

 as a water-rat does. But 

 on small streams, especially 

 in Canada, where during the 

 winter the frost prevents the 

 springs from running, there 

 is always the danger that the 

 water may fall so low that the 

 beavers would be left in shallow 

 water, a prey to the wolverine, 

 wolf, lynx, or human enemies. 

 To keep up the water, the 

 beavers make a dyke or dam 

 across the stream. This they 

 go on building up and 

 strengthening until they have 

 ponded back a large pool. In 

 time, as they never seem to 

 stop adding to their dam, the 

 pool floods the ground on either 

 side of the stream and makes 

 a small lake. It flows over the 



its enemies, and to cover the mouth of the hole which 



Asiiial) water rijdent, 



5IUSK-RAT. 



native tif tlio XitrLb American river, 

 tlie sulie of their fur. 



Immense utmiliera are icilled for 



