CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS. 
1 55 
Family CASTORIDZE. 
CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS (Linn.) Alien. 
American Beaver. 
That the Beaver was once abundant in all parts of the Acliron- 
dacks is attested by the numerous remains and effects of their 
dams ; but at present they are so exceedingly rare that few people 
know that they still exist here. 
Samuel de Champlain found them abundant in the Richelieu 
River in the early part 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. Ill, p. 5.) 
Dr. DeKay says that, in 1815, “a party of St. Regis Indians 
from Canada ascended the Oswegatchie river in the county of St. 
Lawrence in pursuit of Beaver. In consequence of the previous 
hostilities between this country and England, 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 [Mr. T. O. Fowler], who adds that since that time very 
few have been observed.” * * They were not immediately extermi- 
nated, however, for Mr. Calvin V. Graves writes me that in 1834 
a trapper named Hume caught six Beavers in Silverdog 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 Beavers which inhabited that 
part of the Wilderness. 
selectmen to be just and true, to the treasurer of the state, in the month of June, the same shall be 
paid from the state treasury either 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 it, 1883.” 
* Zoology of New York, Part I, 1842, p. 73. 
