File:Four-footed Americans and their kin (1898) (14781314092).jpg

Identifier: fourfootedamericwrig (find matches)
Title: Four-footed Americans and their kin
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, 1859-1934 Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945, ed Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946, ill
Subjects: Mammals Animal behavior
Publisher: New York : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Information and Library Science Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Text Appearing Before Image:
^ ugly in appearance.My body is about three feet long from my nose to thebeginning of my tail. I slope fore and aft, humpingup in the middle like a haystack. My long claws areof the pattern given to burrowers, from the Badger tothe Gopher, and my four gnawing teeth, of a strangedesign, are curved and powerful, the lower two beingfive and the upper pair four inches long. Yet they areset so deeply in the jaw that little more than an inchof them is seen, like tools that are braced deeply intheir handles to give extra strength. The outside ofthese teeth is of a stronger texture than the inside,which causes them to wear down toward the back,giving them the cutting edge of a keen chisel. Look at my tail! It is nine inches long, and inthe middle half as wide as its length; it is a flat, scalypaddle, in fact. You shall see how it serves me as arudder, a danger signal, and a masons trowel. The color of my fur coat is usually reddish brown,
Text Appearing After Image:
Beavers at Work. THE BEAVERS STORY 367 tinged variously with yellow and sometimes veiled withblack. My under-fur is all plain brown, about half aninch long and soft as a Seals. It was this fur that ledmy race into trouble, and caused us to be so popularwith trappers that we were killed out from about therivers and ponds where House Children might haveseen our lodges and runways as freely as they do thoseof the Muskrat. Our soft, even fur made fine Beaverhats; our pelts were strong and elastic — they madegood gloves; our tails were layered with fat — theymade good eating for the Indians. Once we were soimportant that the great Fur Company of HudsonsBay stamped our name upon a coin for a sign of value,1 Made Beaver. So we were trapped in and out of season, cruellyand wastefully, young and old together, until we are buta small tribe, and in all this wide country we inhabitbut a few solitary spots, and so you do not know us. I am a wonder to the Wise Men, and there aremany things abou

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