CASTOR FIHKR T WADKXSIS. 25^ 



Farnil)- Castorid.^?:. 

 CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS (i-inn.) Alien. 

 A merican Beaver. 



That the Beaver was once abundant in all parts of the Adiron- 

 dacks is attested b\- the numerous remains and effects of their 

 dams ; but at present the)- are so exceedinoly rare that {c.w people 

 know that they still exist here. 



Samuel de Champlain found them abundant in the Richelieu 

 River in the early ]X'irt of July, 1609. He said of them : " There 

 is also quite a number of Beavers, as well in the river as in several 

 other streams which fall into it." (Documentary History of New 

 York, Vol. HI, p. 5.) 



Dr. DeKay says that, in 181 5, "a party of St. Reo-is Indians 

 from Canada ascended the Oswe^'atchie river in the county of St. 

 Lawrence in pursuit of Beaver. In consequence of the previous 

 hostilities between this country and I^ngland, this district had not 

 been hunted in some years, and the Beaver had consequently been 

 undisturbed. The party, after an absence of a few weeks, returned 

 with three hundred Beaver skins. These were seen by my in- 

 formant I Mr. T. (). Fowler], who adds that since that time very 

 few ha\'e been observed." * They were not immediately extermi- 

 nated, however, for Mr. Calvin \ . Graves writes me that in 1834 

 a trapper named Hume caught six Beavers in Silverdoo- Pond, in 

 the northeastern part of the town of Diana, in Lewis County; and 

 that a few years later Norman and Hume caught three Beavers on 

 the middle branch of the Oswegatchie, near Harrisville. These 

 are believed to have been the last Ikvavers which inhabited that 

 part of the Wilderness. 



selectmen to he just and true, to the treasurer of the state, in the month of June, the same shall be 

 paid from the state treasury cither to the representative of such town or to the selectmen thereof, 

 upon their written order. 



" Section 3. This act .shall take effect from and after its passage. 



" .Approved September 11, 1883." 



* Zoology of New York, Part I, 1842, p. 73. 



