evidence of it, as far as I know, has been adduced, unless we take the belief of the Indians as such; Indians, like other savages, are close observers of animals, but then, like other savages, they have all sorts of wild legends and fairy-tales about them, as well. But this fairy-tale of the slave-beavers—if we consider it as such—is told not only by the Indians, but by another and very different people who live right away from them, and whom they could never, in old times, have seen, unless, indeed, the Arabs discovered America. Six or seven hundred years ago, an Arabian author, named Kazwini, wrote a work called the _Wonders of Creation_, and in it he says, “The beaver (kundur) is a land and water animal that is found in the smaller rivers of the country Isa. On the banks of these he builds a house, and in it he makes for himself an elevated place, in the form of a bench; then on the right hand, about a step lower, one for his wife, and, on the left, one for his young ones, and, on the lower part of the house, one for his servants. His dwelling possesses, in the lower part, an egress towards the water, and another higher one towards the land. If, therefore, an enemy comes on the water side, or the water rises, he escapes by the egress leading to the land; but if the enemy comes on the land side, by that which leads to the water. He nourishes himself on the flesh of fishes and the wood of the _chelendech_ (? willow). The merchants of that country are able to distinguish the skins of the servants from those of the masters; the former hew the _chelendech_ wood for their masters, drag it with their mouths, and break it in pieces with their foreheads, so that, in consequence of this office, the hair of the head falls out on the right and left side. The merchants, who are aware of this fact, recognise in the hair of the forehead, thus rubbed off, the skin of the servant. In the skin of the master this mark of recognition is wanting, as he employs himself with catching fish.” We do not quite know where the “country of Isa” lay, but beavers, at that time, were common not only in Europe, and the more northern parts of Asia—as Siberia—but southwards, in Asia Minor, as well, as far as to the river Euphrates. It is probably the beavers in these southern parts, which were nearest to his own country, that this Arabian writer was thinking of, and we see that he makes the animal build a house. The probability is that, over such a vast extent of country, the habits of beavers differed a good deal, as perhaps they do now, in the places where they still remain. CHAPTER XVI BEAVER-CANALS AND BEAVER-MEADOWS—ANTIQUITY OF BEAVER-WORKS—BEAVERS AND RAILWAY COMPANIES—WHITE BEAVERS.