BEAVERS 
found guilty, condemned, and duly executed on the spot. 
Respecting the mode of building the dams, many of the 
old stories are not to be allowed credence in Practical 
Natural History. The supposed use of the beaver’s tail 
has been freely descanted upon as being the means 
used for laying the foundation of, and plastering the mud 
walls. Their tails are not employed by the beavers in the 
Zoological Gardens to perform those offices ; they, having 
been carefully watched in many of their most interesting 
movements, have been observed to use their tails only for 
swimming, diving, etc., etc., and not, like those spoken of 
in stories, for the purpose of plastering and smoothing the 
inner and outer sides of the walls of their dwellings, the 
fore-feet being found quite sufficient for those duties ; 
therefore, whatever the beavers of old may have done, the 
beavers of the present day have advanced in knowledge, 
and discontinued the use of their tails in building their 
houses. 
The Marquis of Hamilton (now Duke of Abercorn), who 
took such an active part in the Executive of the Fisheries 
Exhibition of 1883, before consulting me, wrote to the 
Marquis of Bute asking for a pair of beavers to exhibit 
with other animals in the Exhibition grounds. My im- 
pression, when I heard that the beavers were to be for- 
warded, was that the Marquis of Hamilton had been under 
some misapprehension, for it was not an uncommon thing 
for some people to think that beavers were fish-eating 
animals. 
As the beavers were announced to be exhibited, and as 
a suitable place had been prepared for them, I thought the 
matter would pass over without comment. During the 
time the Exhibition was open I was solicited to write a 
notice of the “ living animals outside the building.” This 
I did, and the notice was published in Ijand and W ater, 
97 
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