CASTOR FIBER CANADENSIS. 
i57 
course of our journey we saw several beaver signs, as they are 
termed by the hunters. The Beaver has been so much harassed 
in this State, that it has ceased making dams, and contents itself 
with making large excavations in the banks of streams. Within 
the past year, (1841,) they have been seen on Indian and Cedar 
rivers, and at Paskungameh or Tupper’s lake ; and although they 
are not numerous, yet they are still found in scattered families in 
the northern part of Hamilton, the southern part of St. Lawrence 
and the western part of Essex counties. Through the considerate 
attention of Mr. A. McIntyre, those yet existing in the southern 
part of Franklin county are carefully preserved from the avidity of 
the hunter, and there probably the last of the species in the Atlantic 
States will be found. We noticed the remains of an old and large 
beaver dam at the outlet of Lake Fourth in Herkimer county, but 
it is now nearly covered up by the drift sand from the lake ” (loc. 
cit., p. 74). 
Watson, in his History of Essex County, published in 1869, 
says: “The Beaver was found in great abundance throughout the 
region, by the first occupants. They no longer exist, it is be- 
lieved, in the territory of Essex County ” (p. 348). 
During the fall of 1880, a Beaver was caught on Raquette River, 
between the LJpper Saranac and Big Tupper’s Lake, and about a 
mile below the “ Sweeney carry.” The skin was stuffed and pre- 
served by the hunter who captured the animal. Subsequent to 
this date, saplings were cut in the neighborhood, showing that 
another was at work there. I have myself examined the locality 
and brought away a number of cuttings. They consist of young 
poplars ( Populns tremuloicies ) averaging from two to four inches 
(50 to 100 mm.) in diameter; the largest measured fourteen inches 
(355 mm.) in circumference. 
At present there is a small colony of Beavers on a stream that 
empties into the West Branch of the St. Regis River. It is prob- 
ably the colony referred to by DeKay, in 1842, as “yet existing in 
