Busy beavers: in praise of man’s natural ally

The British experience of beavers is somewhat limited. Most of us haven’t been lucky enough to have spied an immigrant rodent in the wilds of west Devon, or paid a visit to Knapdale and Alyth in Scotland.

Eager is the story of why the American (and to some extent European) landscape looks the way it does — because of those mountain men and fur trappers who rampaged across North America 400 years ago, killing beavers for their soft fur and mindlessly altering the topography of the continent simply because of the European fashion for beaver hats.

But Goldfarb seeks to show how beavers are so much more than this; creating meadows, re-forming rivers, mitigating floods, helping salmon populations, even halting climate change. Yet, maligned and misunderstood by modernity, this creature has continued to be trapped, shot and killed by those who see its natural architecture at odds with human habitation.

This is such a lovely and well-written review. Someone on facebook remarked that it was their favorite and I can see why. You can tell Ben made contact and left an impression. Oh and there’s even a MENTION a certain  beaver festival from foreign soil.

These are some of the characters you meet in the book — people, who for one reason or another, have been drawn into the beaver’s orbit and built their enthusiastic home there, convinced the world could benefit from working with these aquatic rodents. There are volunteers so enthralled by the beaver that they have dedicated a festival to him (or her — beavers are very difficult to sex, but the male expresses an anal liquid that smells like motor oil while the female’s gland juice smells more like cheese).

Ahh!

There are also the ecologists, fluvial geomorphologists, farmers, scientists, salmon fanatics, ranchers, Scottish aristocrats, animal husbandry eccentrics and wildlife biologists. All these characters, as described by Goldfarb, are making the case for beavers as a natural ally of humanity.

This is a book densely packed with knowledge and research. For anyone un-familiar with ecological terminology, it can present difficulties, though Goldfarb does his best to explain the jargon. But his enthusiasm for the subject shines through. By the end it’s hard not to become a beaver believer yourself.

Well that ought to sell a few copies in the UK! Nice job Felicity Morse. This is a great introduction to a book that will become the beavers best friend.  I’m sure Ben is very pleased to see the reach broaden.

And speaking of beavers. the fur-trade and other calamities. Brock Dolman of the OAEC came across this drawing reprinted in a used Time Life Book from 1973 called The Trailblazers.  This illustration was put together by James Isham in 1743 who was a trader employed by HBC. He also happened to be an avid journalist and took detailed notes on his experiences.

The drawing caught my eye because it reminded me at first so much of this drawing by a older boy our very first Earth day in 2008. But even more so because, compared to so much art of the day, it was very detailed and accurate. I’m super excited about this drawing and have a couple things to puzzle with you after you see it. So meet me after the break.

Here’s the scan Brock did from the book.

You’ll need to double click on this to really get close enough to read the text, but its worth doing. There is so much detail in this description about how beavers were hunted and pursued. But also so much mystery. Like the little chamber off the lodge in number 6 where the “Half beaver” lives (muskrat?) or the “vaults” which beavers can use to escape (burrows or tunnels?) Or the anatomical diagram which describes the tail, liver, penis bone, castor sacs and “Lights” (eyes?).

But also the fore feet?

Why describe the forefeet especially and not the back feet? The back feet of a beaver are way more curious by virtue of their being webbed. Was their some medicinal use that I don’t know about that made a market for forefeet?

I searched for hours on the internet and couldn’t come up with more detail or a better image of this map. What I did find was a reference to a researcher Adriana Craciun who believed very convincingly that this image wasn’t the work of Isham, but had in fact been drawn by a Cree indian who knew the trade.

One example of an artifact that Craciun discovered is James Isham’s Observations on Hudson’s Bay, a 1743 manuscript book that had been forgotten or ignored in the Hudson’s Bay Company archives in Winnipeg, Canada. Within the book, Beaver Hunting, an anatomically and technically detailed watercolor illustration, shows Cree people hunting, and includes a 30-point explanatory key. To Craciun’s trained eye, the illustration shows far more. “I think it may have been painted by a Cree illustrator, and at the very least shows the interconnected worlds of the Cree, English, and animals on the Hudson Bay, before the 19th-century British popularized their images of the ‘empty’ and ‘uninhabited’ Arctic,” she explains.

Hmm when I look at those LONG english noses and pipes I’m tempted to think someone’s highlighting how weird english faces look to a Cree? Also the level of detail is so much more direct than your average trapper would offer. Maybe the drawing of the “Fore feet” was even a kind of native trolling – teasing the clueless boss into thinking there was something special about them when everyone knows back feet are better!

Anyway, I love the drawing, and want the rest of his notes. Or at least the notes of people who observed it directly. Apparently if I was affiliated with an institution I could download this.

Hint Hint.

James Isham’s Observations on Hudson’s Bay, 1743 and Notes and Observations on a Book Entitled A Voyage to Hudson’s Bay in the Dobbs Galley 1749 ed. by E. E. Rich (review)