Abstract
Since the Marquis of Bute established a colony of beavers on his estate near Rothesay in 1874, no such interesting experiment has been made in acclimatising these animals as that which Sir Edmund Loder has carried out in Sussex. The beavers have now been inhabitants of his park at Leonardslee, near Horsham, for eight years, or rather they occupy an enclosure inside the park. There they have been placed on the banks of a small stream, with a rather rapid fall, a situation which exactly suits them. It is sheltered, for the valley is deep and wooded, and there was an ample supply of timber, large and small, in the enclosure when the industrious beavers, reversing the story of “Settlers in Canada,” were brought from Canada and settled in Sussex. In the course of their eight years' sojourn they have ensured their comfort by constructing in great perfection, and in the most durable form, the engineering works for which beavers are so justly famed, and which gave rise to the Indian legend that the Creator, after separating land from water, employed gigantic beavers to “smooth” the earth into shape. Meantime the colony increases in number, so that some of the produce have been sold to go elsewhere. Nevertheless the beavers' industry is such that the size of their works, and consequently the area of the pool which they have formed, constantly increases.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cornish, C. An English Breaver Park. Nature 57, 130–131 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/057130b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057130b0