s gained a distinct, rational constructive
power. This feature makes them decidedly the most interesting group for
investigations which may be expected to throw light on the problems of
animal intelligence. From the economic point of view the species has a
certain importance for the reason that it affords one of the most
valuable kinds of fur that has ever been marketed.

The domestication of the beavers to the point where they would tolerate
the presence of man should not, provided they could be protected against
the depredations of poachers, be a matter of any difficulty. The
colonies of these animals require only what is afforded by vast realms
of our wildernesses--flowing streams of moderate fall with timber upon
their banks. They are not particular as to the species, so that
swift-growing kinds of trees such as the poplars may be made to serve
their needs. The natural growth on a hundred acres of otherwise
worthless land would probably be sufficient to maintain a colony of
average size containing say twenty-five individuals. In the region about
the great lakes and for some distance to the northward and to the east
and west there are great areas amounting in the aggregate to some
hundred thousand square miles that would apparently be well suited to
the nurture of this form, and which in the present condition of the
country, as well as for the immediate future, cannot be turned to better
use. It may be remarked that the domestication of the beavers would
afford yet another means, in addition to those above noted, whereby we
might be able to win some profit from the great wilderness of the north,
which is, so far as our existing means of appropriating its resources,
of little use to mankind. The only evident way by which we may hope to
win profit from this part of our continent is by using it as a field for
rearing animals that have yet to be subjugated; none of our captive
varieties are fit for the service.

In the tropical parts of the world there are many mammalian species
which are worthy subjects for essays in domestication. This is
particularly the case in the continent of Africa where, except in the
lands about the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the native peoples have
never attained the stage of culture in which men become strongly
inclined to subjugate wild animals. Africa is richer in large
herbivorous species than any other of the great lands; many of these
forms are of large size and have qualities of fle