316 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



not; and the absence of an index hinders the reader from ascer- 

 taining whether this point is touched upon elsewhere. 



The attempts which have been made at various times to 

 preserve the Beaver, both in Europe and America, form the 

 subject of another chapter, and the opposite methods adopted in 

 the two continents are thus contrasted (p. 168) : — 



" The great difference between the attempts of the white man to per- 

 petuate the beaver and the method adopted by the Indian is all the differ- 

 ence between art and nature. The white man has made artificial enclosures 

 for the beaver ; the Indian reserve was a natural beaver district, chosen by 

 the animals as a suitable home and guarded by the Indian from encroach- 

 ment. Of the regard which beavers had for certain localities Charlevoix 

 says, ' There are some places that the beavers seem to have such an 

 affection for that they do not appear able to leave them, although they are 

 always uneasy there. On the way from Montreal to Lake Huron by the 

 great river, one never fails to find every year at the same place a lodge 

 which these animals build or repair every summer; for the first thing the 

 voyageurs do who arrive there earliest, is to break the lodge and the dam 

 which provides it with water.' The Hudson's Bay Company showed their 

 wisdom by adopting the Indian methods of dealing with nature, and in pro- 

 portion to the closeness with which they follow these methods so is the 

 measure of their success. They have systematically set aside certain 

 islands along the coast of Hudson's Bay as beaver reserves, those favoured 

 most by the beaver being chosen. We have seen how every third year a 

 family of beaver kittens matures, and the Company considers it wise to 

 visit these islands every third year and carefully gather a crop of beaver 

 pelts, representing the approximate increase based on the known habits of 

 the animals. This triennial hunt is conducted in the most orderly and 

 scientific manner, so as not to disturb the colonies, and those who have 

 accompanied the parties give astonishing accounts of the condition of 

 things witnessed, the beavers having almost completely lost their fear of 

 man, and their works assume the most elaborate proportions. The time 

 will soon come when these reserves will be worked over, and then the limi- 

 tations will bring about the inevitable result, a sudden disappearance of the 

 busy hosts." 



Amongst other subjects discussed, Mr. Martin deals with the 

 mythology and folklore of the Beaver, and its connection with 

 heraldry, but in a fragmentary, scrappy kind of way, too sugges- 

 tive of paste and scissors. Indeed the volume may be described 

 as a scrap-book of Beaver- lore, wherein the author, in his 

 anxiety to collect all he could find on the subject, has often 

 shown more industry than discrimination. 



