nails, which bear a striking resemblance to those of the human hand, but are rather more
compressed. When the animal sits erect, it rests on its hind-legs and ta il; but when it walks,
it puts its fore-feet to the ground, and, then arching its body, brings forward its hind-legs, and
trails the tail behind it. The whole hind sole touches the ground as it walks, but only the toes
of the fore-feet. When the fore-feet are lifted, the toes are curled together, or the fist is closed,
which gives them a peculiar appearance of weakness, like a paralytic hand; they are spread out
when they touch the ground. The motions of the Beaver are slow when it is not pursued. I
Dimensions
Of a full-grown Beaver (Spec. 420, Zool. Mus.), killed at Great Slave Lake.
Length of head and body
Inches.
40 0
In ch e s.
Distance from tip of nose to anterior part LI““ -
,, head alone . . 7 3 of the eye .....................................2 10
„ tail, scaly part 11 6 „ the posterior part of the orbit
to anterior part of the ear . . . 2 3
Dimensions
Of a recent specimen of what is termed, by the Fur Traders, a three-quarter Beaver.
Inches. In ch e s.
Length of head and body 30 Length of fore-feet . . . . , 3
,, tail, scaly part 10 ,, of the sole of the hind foot . » 7
Circumference before hind legs 30 Greatest breadth of the tail , ... , ,
„ immediately behind fore-legs 18
The weight of a full-grown Beaver is about twenty-four pounds.
I have not had an opportunity of dissecting a Beaver; but I was informed by the
hunters, that both males and females are furnished with one pair of little bags,
contaiuing castoreum, and also with a second pair of smaller ones betwixt the former
and the anus, which are filled with a white fatty matter, of the consistence of butter,
and exhaling a strong odour. This latter substance is not an article of trade; but
the Indians occasionally eat it, and also mingle a little with their tobacco when
they smoke. I did not learn the purpose that this secretion is destined to serve in
the economy of the animal; but from the circumstance of small ponds when inhabited
by Beavers being tainted with its peculiar odour, it seems probable that it
affords a dressing to the fur of these aquatic animals. The castoreum, in its recent
state, has an orange colour, which deepens, as it dries, into bright reddish-brown.
During the drying, which is allowed to go on in the shade, a gummy matter exudes
through the sack, which the Indians delight in eating. The male and female
castoreum is of the same value, ten pairs of bags of either kind being reckoned to
an Indian as equal to one beaver-skin. The castoreum is never adulterated in the
fur countries. The flesh of the Beaver is much prized by the Indians and Canadian
Voyagers, especially when it is roasted in the skin, after the hair has been
singed off. In some districts it requires all the influence of the Fur Trader to
restrain the hunters from sacrificing a considerable quantity of beaver fur every
year, to secure the enjoyment of this luxury; and Indians of note have generally
one or two feasts in a season, wherein a roasted Beaver is the prime dish. Hearne
terms it delicious food. It resembles pork in its flavour, but the lean is dark-
coloured, the fat oily, and it requires a strong stomach to sustain a full meal of
it. The tail,, which is considered a great luxury, consists of a grisly kind of fat, as
rich, but not so nauseating, as the fat of the body.
The Beaver attains its full size in about three years ; but breeds before that
time. According to Indian report, it pairs in February, and after carrying its
young about ten weeks, brings forth from four to eight or nine cubs, towards the
middle or end of May. Hearne states the usual number of young, produced by
the Beaver at a time, to be from two to five, and that he saw six only in two
instances, although he had witnessed the capture of some hundreds in a gravid
state *. The female has eight teats. In the pairing season the call of the Beaver
is a kind of groan; but the voice of the cubs, which are very playful, resembles
the cry of an infant. When the Beaver cuts down a tree it gnaws it all round,
cutting it however somewhat higher on the one side than the other, by which the
direction of its fall is determined. The stump is cpnical, and of such a height as a
Beaver, sitting on his hind quarters, could make. The largest tree I observed
cut down by them was about the thickness of a man’s thigh (that is, six or seven
inches in diameter;) but Mr. Graham says, that he has seen them cut a tree
which was ten inches in diameter.
Pennant fixes the southern range of the American Beaver in latitude 30°, in
Louisiana, not far from the Gulf of Mexico; whilst Say mentions the confluence
of the Ohio and Mississippi as their limit, which is about seven degrees further
to the northward. In high latitudes they are confined to the wooded districts,
there not being even willows enough for their subsistence on the banks of the
small lakes and rivulets of the Barren Grounds. Their most northern range
is perhaps on the banks of the Mackenzie, which is the largest American river
that discharges itself into the Polar Sea, and is also the best wooded, owing
to the quantity of alluvial soil deposited on its banks. Beavers occur in that
quarter as high as 67J° or 68° of latitude, and their range from east to west
extends from one side of the continent to the other, with the exception of the
Barren districts. They are pretty numerous in the country lying immediately to
* I was informed by a hunter, that the Indians are accustomed, on breaking up a lodge of Beavers, to open the old
female as soon as they kill her, for the purpose of ascertaining, by counting the dilatations of the tubular uterus, what
number of young may be expected to be found in the washes Hearne also says, “ Gn examining the womb of a Beaver,
when not with young, there is always found a hardish round knob, for every young one of the last litter.”