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mammalia. 
the southern part of Franklin county.” It is to be earnestly hoped 
that the hunters who frequent that part of the Wilderness will 
spare no pains to protect these animals from molestation. 
No animal has figured more prominently in the affairs of any 
nation than has the Beaver in the early history of the “ New 
World.” Its influence on the exploration, colonization, and settle- 
ment of this country was very great. The trade in its peltries 
proved a source of competition and strife, not only among the local 
merchants, but also between the several colonies, disputes over the 
boundaries having frequently arisen from this cause alone. In- 
deed, on more than one occasion, jealousy of the Beaver trade led 
to serious difficulties in the struggle for supremacy between the 
three rival powers — the Dutch, English, and French. 
The Provincial Seal of New Netherland was a Beaver resting 
on a shield, encircled by the words “ Sigillum Novi Belgii." 
In the year 1671, there appeared in Amsterdam a paper en- 
titled, “ De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld : of Beschryving van 
America en’t Zuidland : door Arnoldus Montanus.” Much of this 
account is devoted to the natural history of the country, and it 
contains some extraordinary tales concerning the animals found 
there. The author’s remarks upon the Beaver run as follows : 
“ But in addition to other wild animals New Netherland furnishes, 
according to the occular evidence of Adriaen van der Donk, full 
eighty thousand beavers a year. Pliny relates how these animals 
castrate themselves, and leave these parts to the hunters, inasmuch 
as they are much sought after, being an effectual remedy for mania, 
retention of the afterbirth, amenorrhcea, dizziness, gout, lameness, 
belly and tooth aches, dullness of vision, poisoning and rheuma- 
tism. But Pliny commits a grave error ; for the Beavers have 
very small testicles fastened in such a manner to the back bone 
that they cannot remove them except with life. Moreover, they 
live in the water and on land together in troops, in houses built of 
timber over a running stream. The houses excite no common ad- 
