BEAVER IN PERIL OF EXTINCTION IN MICHIGAN.

Unless the State lawmaking body intervenes with protective legislation, there will be a great slaughter of beavers in Upper Michigan less than a year hence. The law which prohibits killing the little fur-bearing animals expires with the close of January, 1910.

For more than eight years beavers have been protected, and that they have thrived is shown by the fact that large colonies are to be found on many streams in different portions of the peninsula.

Whether the animals are worthy of continued protection is a question concerning which divergent views are held. From a humanitarian standpoint most persons doubtless would be sorry to see the closed season abolished. It is the opinion of lumbermen, however, that beavers are a nuisance. This is because of the work of the animals in building dams. The streams obstructed in this manner, the water is often backed up and extensive areas are flooded, interfering with the log drives and frequently resulting in considerable property loss.

The dams in most cases are amazingly well constructed. Marvelous ingenuity is shown by the builders, and so systematically are the operations carried on that the work accomplished is almost beyond belief.

Last fall when the water in Dead River fell to such a low stage that it was hardly possible to keep Marquette's municipal electric plant in commission, investigation resulted in the discovery that the stream was dammed at more than a score of places. Large reservoirs had thus been created. The obstructions were the work of beavers, good-sized colonies of which were domiciled at every point where the river was found to be blocked.

So stanchly constructed were the dams that the use of dynamite was necessary to destroy them. It was found that trees as large as ten inches in diameter had been utilized, and in almost every instance the timber had been cut into four-foot lengths. Firmly set into place and plastered with mud, the logs formed a substantial barrier, and, augmented with small sticks and brush, they were successful in backing up the river until at one point the stream was more than a mile in width.

However, although the beavers occasion material havoc of this sort, they do not want for friends who would resent such action as would leave the animals open to wholesale slaughter. It is pointed out that, while the beavers have multiplied greatly the last few years and are now very plentiful, as the result of the imposition of the closed season, it would require only a few months' work to exterminate the animals entirely.

Choice beaver skins, such as are procurable in upper Michigan, are in demand from furriers, and it is unquestioned that with the expiration of the present statutory protection, waters frequented by the little animals would witness a swift and sanguinary onslaught by scores of trappers.