Chapter Ten. Beavers - Book of zoology for boys by Mayne Reid
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 à 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.