41 8 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



number), whose perverse selfishness is only exceeded or paliated by their 

 narrow-minded short-sightedness and ignorance of their own best interests. 

 It is unnecessary to remark that the intelligent classes, in every Adirondack 

 community, are warm friends of the industrious little beaver, and heartily 

 welcome his return. 



The limits of the present paper do not permit of any attempt to describe 

 the physical characteristics, or the artificial erections, of the beaver, except 

 casually, and incidentally with respect to the main subject — the numerical 

 fluctuations in the Adirondacks and the recent efforts at reintroduction. 

 Almost nothing of essential importance could be added to the splendid 

 descriptions given in the standard volume, The American Beaver and His 

 Works, by Lewis H. Morgan, published in 1868, and previously recom- 

 mended, to which the reader is referred. So far as the writer knows, the 

 Adirondack beaver has not developed any characteristic variations, either 

 of physical form or habits, from his Hudson Bay congener, the type species, 

 known to science as Castor canadensis . 



Acknowledgments 



It is proper to acknowledge the kind assistance of Dr. William T. 

 Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoological Park, during the prepara- 

 tion of- this paper, and to record that help, in one form or another, has been 

 given the writer by the following : Prof. Charles Hallock, Washington, 

 D. C; William G. Rockefeller, New York; Hon. Timothy L. Woodruff, 

 Brooklyn; Dr. Samuel B. Ward, Albany; Col. William F. Fox, Superin- 

 tendent of New York State Forests; State Game Protector Ned Ball, Old 

 Forge; Henry Davidson, foreman of the Pleasant Valley. Fish Hatchery, 

 Bath; Hon. Frank C. Hooper, North River; A. M. Church, Secretary-Treas- 

 urer of the Brown's Tract Guides' Association, Boonville; Joseph B. 

 Edwards, New York; A. B. Strough, Special Agent, New York State Forest, 

 Fish and Game Commission; W. T. Campbell, North Creek; Hon. George A. 

 Stevens, Lake Placid; J. H. Taylor (author of Beavers: Their Ways), Wash- 

 burn, N. Dak.; George Little, North Creek; Andrew Gates, Minerva; John 

 B. Burnham, Chief Game Protector of New York State, Essex; D. W. 

 Riddle and W. M. Boyce, Saranac Inn; William B. Young, Lake Placid; 

 Wallace Murray and Isaias Vosburgh, Saranac Lake. 



