Britain, after the discovery by the Rev. Mr. Green of an incisor of the lower
jaw of one of these great Beavers in the lacustrine reddish sand of Bacton.
Subsequently Lyell discovered a portion of the lower jaw of this animal in the
blue clay at Cromer amongst the bones of mammoth, rhinoceros, ox, horse, and
deer, showing that it existed until the Pleistocene age.
In America a giant Beaver twice the size of the C. canadensis and belonging
to the genus Castoroides has been discovered. Dr. A. Wallace, in his ‘ Geographical
Distribution of Animals,’ 1 say s : ‘ Extinct species of Castor range back
from the post-Pliocene to the Upper Miocene in Europe, and to the newer Pliocene
in North America. Extinct genera in Europe are Trogontherium, post-
Pliocene and Pliocene; Chalicomys, Older Pliocene; and Steneofiber, Upper
Miocene. In North America Castoroides is post-Pliocene, and Palceocastor Upper
Miocene. The family thus first appears on the same geological horizon in both
Europe and North America.’
T he E uropean B eaver
Castor fiber, Linnaeus.
Castor fiber, Linn. ‘ Syst. Nat.’ 12th ed. vol. i. p. 78 (1766).
Castor fossilis, Goldfuss, ‘ Nova Acta Ac. Caes. Lesp.-Car.’ vol. xi. p. 488 (1823).
Castor europeeus, Owen, ‘ Brit. Foss. Mam.’ p. 190 (1846).
Local Names.—Beaver2 (English); Dobhar-chu (water-dog), Dovran-los lithan8 (broad-tailed
otter), Leas-leatkan, Los-leathan (broad-tail) (Scotch Gaelic); Afangc (avank) (river-
dog), Llostlydan (broad-tail) (Welsh).
The Characters of the Beaver will be found in the description of the genus
Castor. As the animal is now extinct in Britain it is not necessary to enter into
minute details.
D istribution.—Formerly the European Beaver was distributed over the greater
part of Northern and Central Europe as well as Northern Asia. It existed
within historic times in England, France, Switzerland,4 Spain, Holland, Germany,
1 Vol. ii. p. 234.
2 Anglo-Saxon, befer. The Latin fiber is derived from fibrum, denoting the edge of the water, and the generic name
Castor is from the Greek.
3 Dovran (Scotch Gaelic), Dwfr and D yfr (Welsh), Dover (English) mean places or things connected with the water.
4 ‘ Beavers were to be found in the Aar, the Linnet, and the Reuss, and up to the last century [eighteenth] a few still
lingered on the banks of the last-named stream, on the Thiele, and the Byrse,’ Troyon, Habitations lacustres, and Von
Tsaudi, Das Thierleben der Alpen Welt (Harting, Zoologist, p. 277, July 1886).
Austria, South Russia, Poland, and northwards through Norway, Sweden, and
Lapland. Passing eastwards it was found in many parts of North Russia on the
great rivers that flowed to the Arctic Ocean, both in Europe and Asia as far east
as Behring Straits.
Now the Beaver may be considered a rare animal in both Europe and Asia.
The last colonies existing in France1 and Germany2 are situated on the Rhone
and the Rhine, but in both these places they are nearly extinct. A few may still
linger on the Elbe and the Lower Danube, but the animal has disappeared from
Poland and South Russia. There are three small colonies in Norway,8 though
the last were killed in Lapland previous to 1830. Beavers were found on the
Petchora and the Dwina in Russia4 until 1842, and possibly a few may still exist
in their unfrequented tributary streams. Gone from the Yenesei and Irtish,
where formerly they were common, they were reported from the Pelyn, a tributary
of the Obi, in Western Siberia, until 1876, and they may still exist there. They
were common in Central Livonia in the eighteenth century.
In England and Scotland semi-fossilised remains of the Beaver are common,
and afford evidence of its abundance in post-Glacial times. In such superficial
deposits as the Cambridge and Lincolnshire fens, the turbaries of the Lea valley
in Essex, and in the peat of Berwickshire and Perthshire great numbers of remains
have been unearthed, as well as in the early Pleistocene deposits of the Norfolk
Forest-bed, Kent’s Hole, Torquay, and the Pleistocene formations of the Thames
1 It was common on the Gardon and the Cese in the eighteenth century, and Cuvier possessed a living example from
the Gardon. Another was exhibited alive in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in 1874. In 1885 the Marquis de Cherville (Les
Quadrupèdes de la Chasse, Paris, 1885, pp. 173 -17 7) stated that a few still existed on the banks of the Rhone and its
affluents, particularly the Gardon, as well as in the Marshes of Picardy.
2 Harting says that ‘ at the close of the last century [eighteenth] many localities are reported to have been frequented
by Beavers,’ notably in Altmark, Preignitz, Middlemark, on the rivers Spree and Haxel and in the vicinities of Berlin,
Potsdam, Oranienburg, Liebenwalde, Trebbin, Nauen, and Konigshorst. In 1801 Bechstein says there were many Beavers
on the Elbe, near Kâhnert. They lived, too, near Wittenberg, Kettinghausen on the Lippe, and in the territory of Paderbom.
Also they existed a little later on the rivers Nathe and Amper. Wagner in 1846 mentions Beavers as living on the Danube,
Amper, Isar, Hier, Salzach, and the Oder. In North-west Germany, Harting says they formerly existed on the Moselle and
the Maas ; and so recently as 1878 four pairs of Beavers lived near the village of Wittenberg, and that there were other dams
towards the Anhalt frontier. These animals were protected by the Crown. The Elbe colonies were still in existence in
1886. The Beaver was also not quite extinct in Bohemia at this date.
3 Lilljeborg, Nilsson, Blasius, and Giebel all state in general terms that the Beaver was still common in Norway at the
dates at which they wrote, but give no precise particulars as to its distribution. Mr. A. H. Cocks has, however, pointed out
(Zoologist, 1880, p. 233) its present area as follows. There are at least three colonies, the exact locality of which he
suppresses, and in a subsequent article (Zoologist, 1880, p. 501) he expresses his opinion that there were not sixty adult
Beavers in the whole of Norway. In 1883 Professor Collet estimated their numbers at about a hundred, and it is satisfactory
to learn that they are now protected by law. The Beaver formerly existed in Denmark.
4 Beavers, according to Demidoff, were common in 1842 in the region towards the Caucasus.