246 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
sovereign, who was enabled to give permission for the 
killing of several individuals on large estates, or even 
to permit the proprietors to kill the whole number of 
animals on an island or enclosed property, thus putting 
some of the colonies, like the one at Aamli, entirely in 
the power of the owner. Moreover, although slaughter is 
entirely forbidden on Crown or municipal lands, beavers 
might be killed to any extent, and apparently in any 
number, on private estates where they inflicted appreciable 
damage. 
Two much more effectual statutes have, however, come 
into operation: the one, dated August 31st, 1894, pro- 
tecting all the beavers in the Amt of Sondre Bergenhus 
till the end of 1904, and the other, dated September 3rd, 
1895, doing the same for the colony of Aamli till the end 
of 1905. The penalty for illegally killing beaver is a fine 
of eighty kronors (about 44 10s.), which can be inflicted 
on all the participators in the offence. 
The chief food of the beaver in Norway consists of the 
fresh bark of deciduous trees, more especially the aspen, 
the larger branches being barked, but the twigs consumed 
entire, and the coarse bark of the trunk generally rejected. 
For winter use small branches are sunk near the entrance 
to the lodge, but no store of stripped bark is collected. 
Most of the trees felled are situated close to the water, 
with beaten tracks leading to them from the lodge, but 
occasionally some are chosen a considerable distance away 
from the river. The trees are gnawed all round until 
the portion left is so thin that the stem breaks from its 
own weight, the stump remaining being generally about 
half a yard in length, and terminating in a point like a 
pencil, as does the lower end of the felled stem. Small 
trunks or branches are, however, gnawed in a slanting 
