In monkish times beaver-tail was considered to partake more of the nature of fish than flesh, and was consequently allowed to be eaten on fast days. This was, however, in the days when beavers were still abundant in all the great rivers of Europe, from most of which they have now been all but exterminated for the sake of their valuable fur, and likewise for the odoriferous secretion known as castoreum, which was formerly much used both in medicine and in perfumery. When the last beaver was killed in the British Isles is unknown, but the species still survived in Wales when the old chronicles were written; and we have testimony as to its former existence in England not only in the shape of skulls, teeth, and bones dug up from time to time in the peat of the fens and other superficial deposits, but also in place-names such as Beverley, in Yorkshire.
Considerable colonies of beavers still exist, by the aid of special protection, in certain parts of Scandinavia, while a few are taken from time to time in the Rhone, but from the Rhine, and even the Vistula, they seem to have completely disappeared. In eastern Russia they probably still survive locally, as they doubtless do over a large part of Siberia, although our information on this point is very defective. Indeed the southern range of the beaver in central Asia seems to be still unknown, although it is certain that the species never existed in Kashmir or the Himalaya.
Of late years it has been suggested that each of the great European river-systems possessed a special race of beavers of its own; but the evidence adduced in favour of this opinion is at present insufficient. Speaking broadly, the beaver may be regarded as a circumpolar animal; although its American representative has been separated, on account of a comparatively small difference in the shape of the bones covering the cavity of the nose, as a distinct species, under the name of Castor canadensis. Unfortunately, the Canadian beaver has been almost as much persecuted as its European relative, and has been exterminated from many districts.
Beavers, it need scarcely be mentioned, are thoroughly aquatic rodents, which feed on vegetable substances, and have their entrances to their habitations under water. They remain active all the winter, when they swim beneath the ice. In Europe beavers have given up constructing lodges, and live in burrows.
THE MARMOT
(Arctomys marmotta)
THE marmot of the Alps is the typical representative of a large assemblage of burrowing rodents near akin to squirrels; the head-quarters of the group being in central Asia. By rights, of course, the name belongs exclusively to the typical species, but as it has been extended to include all the members of the group, the former is now distinguished as the Alpine marmot. Marmotte, it appears, is the Savoyard name of this rodent, which in the Engadine is designated marmotella, while its German designation is murmeltier.
The typical marmot is confined to Europe, and mainly to the high ranges of the Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians. In eastern Europe and western Asia it is replaced by the bobac (Arctomys bobac); and in central Asia there are a number of species, of which several are considerably larger and more brightly coloured than the Alpine animal; none is found to the south of the main range of the Himalaya, and the group is represented elsewhere only by the so-called woodchuck (A. monax) of North America, which attains a length of about 24 inches.
The general colour and appearance of the Alpine marmot are well shown in the Plate; and it will suffice to direct attention to the shortness of the ears as a feature connected with burrowing habits. In one Himalayan species the tail is considerably longer. In the Alps marmots dwell high up among bare rocks, above the zone of vegetation, where not even goats venture, and where it frequently snows for six weeks together in winter. In such desolate situations these hardy rodents make their home in the little islands of rocks between the glaciers. Himalayan marmots, on the other hand, live at an elevation where a considerable amount of vegetable growth flourishes in summer; their burrows being frequently excavated beneath clumps of wild rhubarb.