Of true Beavers there is only one species--unless the beaver of the Old
World be different from the well-known animal of the American continent.
This is a question which has been much debated among naturalists; and
certainly the difference which is known to exist between the habits of
the two animals would seem to prove them distinct. The European beaver
is generally supposed to lead a solitary life--burrowing in the banks of
rivers as otters do; but this supposition is evidently erroneous: or,
rather, we should say, its solitary habit is not its normal or original
condition, but has been produced by circumstances. It is probable that
if European beavers were left to themselves, in a situation remote from
the presence of man, they would build dams, and dwell together in
colonies, just as the American beavers do. In fact, such colonies have
actually existed in some parts of Europe and Asia; and no doubt exist at
the present hour. One has even been found on the small river Nutha, in
a lonely canton of the Magdeburg district, near the Elbe. Moreover, it
is well-known that the American beavers, when much hunted and persecuted
(as they are certain to be whenever the settlements approach their
territory) forsake their gregarious habit; and betake themselves to the
"solitary system;" just as their European cousins have done. Did this
constitute the only difference between the beavers of the Old and New
Worlds, we might regard them as one and the same; but there are other
and still more important points of distinction--reaching even to their
anatomical structure--which seem to prove them distinct species. The
probability is in favour of this view: since there is perhaps no
indigenous quadruped of the one continent exactly identical with its
synonymous species of the other; excepting the polar bears, and a few
other kinds--whose arctic range leads them, as it were, all round the
earth. The written natural history of the beaver is usually that of the
American species; not that this differs materially from his European
congener, but simply because it has been more extensively and accurately
observed. Its valuable fur has long rendered it an object of the chase;
and for fifty years it has been hunted _a l'outrance_, and, in fact,
exterminated from a wide domain of more than a million of square miles.
Formerly, its range extended from the Gulf of Mexico almost to the
shores of the Arctic Sea, and latitudinally from ocean to ocean. At
present, it is not found in the territory of the United States proper,
except in remote and solitary situations, among the mountains, or in
some tracts still unsettled. Even where found in these places, its mode
of life approximates more to that of the European species; that is, it
burrows instead of builds. The beaver has been long reputed as the most
sagacious of quadrupeds. True it is, that the capacity of cutting down
trees--often a foot or more in diameter--floating or rafting these trees
down a stream, and constructing a dam with them, and afterwards building
its singular houses or lodges in the water, would seem to indicate the
presence of a rational power. But there are many other creatures--
birds, insects, and quadrupeds--that exhibit instincts quite as
surprising.
Nevertheless the habits of the beaver are curious in the extreme, and
deserve to be given in detail. The best account of them is that of the
old and truthful traveller Hearne: upon whose homely but accurate
observations scores of fireside naturalists have established a measure
of their fame. We shall leave _him_ to tell the story of these singular
animals.
"The beavers," he says, "being so plentiful, the attention of my
companions was chiefly engaged on them, as they not only furnished
delicious food, but their skins proved a valuable acquisition,--being a
principal article of trade, as well as a serviceable one for clothing.
The situation of the beaver-houses are various. Where the beavers are
numerous, they are found to inhabit lakes, ponds, and rivers, as well as
those narrow creeks which connect the numerous lakes with which this
country abounds; but the two latter are generally chosen by them when
the depth of water and other circumstances are suitable, as they have
then the advantage of a current to convey wood and other necessaries to
their habitations; and because, in general, they are more difficult to
be taken than those that build in standing water. They always choose
those parts that have such a depth of water as will resist the frost in
winter, and prevent it from freezing to the bottom. The beavers that
build their houses in small rivers or creeks, in which water is liable
to be drained off when the back supplies are dried up by the frost, are
wonderfully taught by instinct to provide against that evil by making a
dam quite across the river, at a convenient distance from their houses.
The beaver-dams differ in shape, according to the nature of the place in
which they are built. If the water in the river or creek have but
little motion, the dam is almost straight; but when the current is more
rapid, it is always made with a considerable curve, convex towards the
stream. The materials made use of are drift-wood, green willows, birch,
and poplars if they can be got; also mud and stones, intermixed in such
a manner as must evidently contribute to the strength of the dam; but
there is no other order or method observed in the dams, except that of
the work being carried on with a regular sweep, and all the parts being
made of equal strength. In places which have been long frequented by
beavers undisturbed, their dams, by frequent repairing, become a solid
bank, capable of resisting a great force both of water and ice; and as
the willow, poplar, and birch generally take root and shoot up, they by
degrees form a regular planted hedge, which I have seen in some places
so tall, that birds have built their nests among the branches.
"The beaver-houses are built of the same materials as their dams, and
are always proportioned in size to the number of inhabitants, which
seldom exceeds four old and six to eight young ones; though, by chance,
I have seen above double the number. Instead of order or regulation
being observed in rearing their houses, they are of a much ruder
structure than their dams; for, notwithstanding the sagacity of these
animals, it has never been observed that they aim at any other
convenience in their houses than to have a dry place to lie on; and
there they usually eat their victuals, which they occasionally take out
of the water. It frequently happens that some of the large houses are
found to have one or more partitions (if they deserve that appellation),
but it is no more than a part of the main building left by the sagacity
of the beaver to support the roof. On such occasions it is common for
these different apartments, as some are pleased to call them, to have no
communication with each other but by water; so that, in fact, they may
be called double or treble houses, rather than different apartments of
the same house. I have seen a large beaver-house built in a small
island that had near a dozen apartments under one roof; and, two or
three of these only excepted, none of them had any communication with
each other but by water. As there were beavers enough to inhabit each
apartment, it is more than probable that each family knew their own, and
always entered at their own door, without any further connection with
their neighbours than a friendly intercourse, and to join their united
labours in erecting their separate habitations, and building their dams
where required. Travellers who assert that the beavers have two doors
to their houses--one on the land side, and the other next the water--
seem to be less acquainted with these animals than others who assign
them an elegant suite of apartments. Such a construction would render
their houses of no use, either to protect them from their enemies, or
guard them against the extreme cold of winter.
"So far are the beavers from driving stakes into the ground when
building their houses, that they lay most of the wood crosswise, and
nearly horizontal, and without any other variation than that of leaving
a hollow or cavity in the middle. When any unnecessary branches project
inward they cut them off with their teeth, and throw them in among the
rest, to prevent the mud from falling through the roof. It is a
mistaken notion that the woodwork is first completed and then plastered;
for the whole of their houses, as well as their dams, are, from the
foundation, one mass of mud and wood, mixed with stones, if they can be
procured. The mud is always taken from the edge of the bank, or the
bottom of the creek or pond near the door of the house; and though their
fore-paws are so small, yet it is held close up between them under their
throat: thus they carry both mud and stones, while they always drag the
wood with their teeth. All their work is executed in the night, and
they are so expeditious, that in the course of one night I have known
them to have collected as much as amounted to some thousands of their
little handfuls. It is a great piece of policy in these animals to
cover the outside of their houses every fall with fresh mud, and as late
as possible in the autumn, even when the frost becomes pretty severe, as
by this means it soon freezes as hard as a stone, and prevents their
common enemy, the wolverene, from disturbing them during the winter; and
as they are frequently seen to walk over their work, and sometimes to
give a flap with their tail, particularly when plunging into the water,
this has, without doubt, given rise to the vulgar opinion that they use
their tails as a trowel, with which they plaster their houses; whereas
that flapping of the tail is no more than a custom which they always
preserve, even when they become tame and domestic, and more particularly
so when they are startled.
"Their food consists of a large root, something resembling a
cabbage-stalk, which grows at the bottom of the lakes and rivers. They
also eat the bark of trees, particularly those of the poplar, birch, and
willow; but the ice preventing them from getting to the land in the
winter, they have not any bark to feed on in that season, except that of
such sticks as they cut down in summer, and throw into the water
opposite the doors of their houses; and as they generally eat a great
deal, the roots above-mentioned constitute a principal part of their
food during the winter. In summer they vary their diet by eating
various kinds of herbage, and such berries as grow near their haunts
during that season. When the ice breaks up in the spring the beavers
always leave their houses, and rove about until a little before the fall
of the leaf, when they return again to their old habitations, and lay in
their winter-stock of wood. They seldom begin to repair their houses
till the frost commences, and never finish the outer coat till the cold
is pretty severe, as has been already mentioned. When they erect a new
habitation they begin felling the wood early in the summer, but seldom
begin to build until the middle or latter end of August, and never
complete it till the cold weather be set in.
"Persons who attempt to take beavers in winter should be thoroughly
acquainted with their manner of life; otherwise they will have endless
trouble to effect their purpose, because they have always a number of
holes in the banks, which serve them as places of retreat when any
injury is offered to their houses, and in general it is in those holes
that they are taken. When the beavers which are situated in a small
river or creek are to be taken, the Indians sometimes find it necessary
to stake the river across to prevent them from passing; after which they
endeavour to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the bank.
This requires much practice and experience to accomplish, and is
performed in the following manner:--Every man being furnished with an
ice-chisel, lashes it to the end of a small staff about four to five
feet long; he then walks along the edge of the banks, and keeps knocking
his chisel against the ice. Those who are acquainted with that kind of
work well know by the sound of the ice when they are opposite to any of
the beavers' holes or vaults. As soon as they suspect any, they cut a
hole through the ice big enough to admit an old beaver; and in this
manner proceed till they have found out all their places of retreat, or
at least as many of them as possible. While the principal men are thus
employed, some of the under-strappers and the women are busy in breaking
open the house--which at times is no easy task, for I have frequently
known these houses to be five or six feet thick; and one, in particular,
was more than eight feet thick in the crown. When the beavers find that
their habitations are invaded, they fly to their holes in the banks for
shelter; and on being perceived by the Indians, which is easily done, by
attending to the motion of the water, they block up the entrance with
stakes of wood, and then haul the beaver out of its hole, either by
hand, if they can reach it, or with a large hook made for that purpose,
which is fastened to the end of a long stick. The beaver is an animal
which cannot keep long under at a time; so that when their houses are
broken open, and all their places of retreat discovered, they have but
one choice left, as it may be called--either to be taken in their house
or their vaults; in general they prefer the latter; for where there is
one beaver caught in the house, many thousands are taken in the vaults
in the banks. Sometimes they are caught in nets, and, in summer, very
frequently in traps.
"In respect to the beavers dunging in their houses, as some persons
assert, it is quite wrong, as they always plunge into water to do it. I
am the better enabled to make this assertion, from having kept several
of them till they became so domesticated as to answer to their name, and
follow those to whom they were accustomed in the same manner as a dog
would do; and they were as much pleased at being fondled as any animal I
ever saw. In cold weather they were kept in my own sitting-room, where
they were the constant companions of the Indian women and children; and
were so fond of their company, that when the Indians were absent for any
considerable time, the beavers discovered great signs of uneasiness, and
on their return showed equal marks of pleasure, by fondling on them,
crawling into their laps, lying on their backs, sitting erect like a
squirrel, and behaving like children who see their parents but seldom.
In general, during the winter, they lived on the same food as the women
did; and were immoderately fond of rice and plum-pudding; they would eat
partridges and fresh venison very freely; but I never tried them with
fish, though I have heard they will at times prey on them. In fact,
there are few graminivorous animals that may not be brought to be
carnivorous."
The _Musquash_, or _Musk-rat_, is undoubtedly a beaver, and has been
called at times the Little Beaver; but it has pleased the naturalists to
constitute it a genus of itself, though there is only the one species
known. Its habits are extremely like those of the beaver: it is
aquatic, or amphibious, if you please--building itself a conical house
in the midst of a swamp, or low islet, and feeding on shoots of trees,
bits of green wood, leaves and stalks of nettles, and other herbaceous
plants. Its fur bears a very great resemblance to that of the beaver,
only it is shorter, and therefore less valuable. Notwithstanding this,
it is an article of extensive commerce; and upwards of a million skins
have been imported into England in a single year. The musquash might
also be exterminated like the beaver; but being a smaller creature, and
therefore less persecuted by the amateur sportsman, it is still common
enough upon the streams of the northern and middle States of America.
Further north it is plentiful; and the Hudson's Bay Company procure a
vast number of skins for annual exportation to Europe. Its name of
musk-rat is derived from the scent of musk which the animal emits, and
which is especially powerful during the season of rut.
It is possible that the musk-rat of Siberia, as well as several species
of water-rats belonging to South America--and known vaguely by the name
of Lutras and Nutrias--may be animals of the beaver kind, rather than
Water-Rats or Otters, among which they are generally classed.