The steady Extiiiction of the Beaver. 95 



portion of the dam for the purpose of letting off the back water, 

 which had inundated a large flat and the forest where he had 

 been engaged with a party of wood-cutters ; but now, to his 

 astonishment, he found not only that the beavers had repaired 

 the breech, as shown by quantities of logs sunk in deep water, 

 but that the meadow was as much flooded as ever. We ranged 

 all over the swamp, now frozen and covered with several feet of 

 snow, yet could not perceive any further traces of the animals, 

 which had, no doubt, been scared away by the lumbermen in 

 the vicinity. On reference to the map it will be observed that 

 the northern portion of the province is completely inter- 

 sected by networks of streams and rivers, so that a colony of 

 beavers is enabled to retreat from one to the other, just as the 

 wood-cutters happen to intrude on their haunts. Unlike the 

 musk rat, it is extremely sensitive of molestation, and readily 

 abandons a favourite resort when subjected to annoyance. 

 Both Indians and old settlers assert that formerly all the 

 work was done by day, but is now chiefly carried on at night ; 

 which statement, if correct, shows the influence of civiliza- 

 tion on the habits of the animal. A trapper long practised 

 in beaver hunting told me that after April or May, when 

 the young are born, the males leave the dams and wander 

 about for several weeks, quite away from the females, who 

 also disperse as soon as their offspring are able to provide 

 for themselves ; moreover, that they congregate towards the 

 end of summer. These ways, in connection with its slow 

 progress on land, would make the odoriferous glands service- 

 able in leaving their effluvia on substances, in order to guide 

 them towards each other when they re-assemble in the rutting 

 season. The same, moreover, might be said of the skunk, and 

 even the contents of the infraorbital glands of certain deer, 

 not excepting the bag of the male Musk. No doubt, how- 

 ever, with the Skunk, as before shown, the abominable odour 

 serves also as a means of defence. 



The beaver, when he has totally disappeared, will leave 



