94 Field mid Forest Rambles. 



Rodents. — Insectivora. — Bats. — There would appear 

 little to be added to the natural history of an animal 

 so well known as the Beaver, especially since the pub- 

 lication of Mr. Morgan's elaborate work ;* however, out 

 of curiosity I visited, in the depths of winter, a beaver dam, 

 near the sources of the S.W. branch of the Miramachi river, 

 where, and among the more secluded forest wilds around the 

 head waters of Restigouche, Tobique, and Nepisiguit, a few 

 still linger ; it cannot be, however, long before the noise of the 

 lumberer's axe and the trapper will expel or extirpate every 

 beaver from the country, inasmuch as the creature is very 

 susceptible of molestation, and will not flourish unless left in 

 undisputed possession of its haunts. The great strength of 

 the creature's jaws was well exemplified on several trees near 

 this dam. Selecting a tough alder stump of nine inches in 

 circumference, I counted the chisellings, and found there were 

 from thirty-four to thirty-six distinct marks of the incisors to 

 within a very short distance of the centre, before the tree had 

 toppled over.f Unfortunately, a heavy snow-storm came on 

 and obscured the outline of the dam and its works, but we 

 could see distinct traces of the extensive tree felling that had 

 been going on, and the stumps with their incisions slanting, as if 

 done by an axe. Our guide informed me that he visited the 

 locality during the previous autumn, and demolished a large 



* "American Beaver and his Works." 



f The persevering industry wherewith the animal labours at its dam is 

 well illustrated in the size of the trees it will often cut down ; but I have 

 observed that it seems sometimes to fall into error in selecting, or else 

 taking by chance, trees of too large size, as evinced by the prostrate trunk 

 lying where it was felled, without any further division. On one of the 

 influents of the Restigouche, the Hon. Sir A. Gordon mentions that " heaps 

 of large trees, some of them four or five feet in circumference, were 

 seen lying prostrate ; and on examination we found them to be all freshly 

 cut down by beavers. Gabriel {i.e., the Indian) said we might travel for 

 years in the forests and not come upon such a spectacle again. We 

 counted twenty-nine trees cut down, besides multitudes of shrubs and 

 bushes." — Wilderness Wanderings, p. 28. 



