The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-08-13
SAVED THE BEAVER
Professor Lucas Says Silk Hat
Prevented determination.
Invention Came Too Late to Save the
European Animal, but 1t Cave
Respite to American
Cousins.

The completion of q beaver GROUP
at the American Museum of Natural
History Is the occasion for the pub
LEGATION in the current number of the
American Museum Journal of an arti-
Gle in which Director Frederic A
Lucas tells how the silk hat saved
the whole beaver family from exter-
mination. The invention of this style
of headgear-it became popular in
Paris about 1S25-was too late to save
the European beaver, but it gave a
much needed respite to his American
cousins, of which there are four or
five geographical races or subspecies.
The connection may seem obscure
to those who do not know that from
the year 100 up to the early part Of
the last century the standard mate
rial for mems hats was beaver fur.
Even as late as 1854 the Hudson Bay
company disposed of no fewer than
509,240 skins, although that number
probably represented the accumula-
tions Of several years. The result
of the change in fashion was that
the price of beaver skins declined to
point at which trapping the beaver
was no longer profitable, and for a
time the animal was SO little dis
turbed that it multiplied exceedingly.
In 1869 skins were offered by the bale
as low as Is cents each
But the furriers and trappers were
| not to suffer the beaver to live long
in peace. Soon fashion decreed the
wearing of beaver furs, and this de-
mand has kept down the number of
beavers ever since.
If we Americans, says Doctor Lu-
cas-, were not a wasteful, IMPROVE
| dent, lawless nation, there would be
little trouble in supplying all the beav-
er skins necessary, and there is small
doubt that this will eventually be
done. With proper restrictions the
natural increase of beaver colony
would yield a stated number of skins
annually, the chief care necessary be-
ing to plant trees to provide food
supply. How readily this could be
done is shown by the history of the
|
where they once abounded, and where
| in spite of persistent trapping, they
seem not to have been wholly exter-
minated, although in 1894 Mr.. Radford
| finds that not more than ten were
left in the Adirondack region.
In 1904 the state of New York ap-
propriated $500 for the reintroduc-
ton of beaver, and with this and sub
sequent appropriations and the aid
| of private contributions some "a ami
mails were turned loose. BY 1908
there were about $50 animals in the
| Adirondacks, and since then they have
not only increased, but spread to 9TH
er localities, a few even being found
in northern New Jersey, although
these may have been quietly intro
duced."
Doctor Lucas punctures the popu-
| lar fallacy that the beaver uses his
! tail as a trowel, or in the transporta-
ton of his building materials, as we'll
as the less widely held belief that
large numbers of the animals unite
to cut down large trees. Those who
| know the animal best says the di-
rector, look upon the canals con-
structed for the transportation of food
supplies as the most remarkable Of
all his undertakings. Man, with the
| aid of steam and electricity, excavates
the Suez and Panama canals, but the
beaver. a creature weighing on an av-
erage 30 or 40 pounds, with no tools
except teeth and paws, digs trenches
$50 to $50 feet long and yard wide
and deep. Further than this, in cases
where the ground slopes rapidly, the
beaver will erect dam after dam, and
dig canal after canal, until by a sue
cession of steplike levels, the needed
food is obtained"