Routes in California and Oregon… Report upon the zoology of the route, Castor canadensis

Newberry, JS (1857) Report upon the zoology of the route. In: HL Abbot, Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, v. 6: Routes in California and Oregon Explored by Lieut. R. S. Williamson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, and Lieut. Henry L. Abbot, Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 1855, part 4: Report upon the zoology of the route, ch. 1: Report upon the mammals, Castor canadensis, pp 58-59. War Department, Washington, D.C.

“In California the beaver is also quite common, though less so than in Oregon. It is found in the streams flowing into the Sacramento, both from the coast range and from the Sierra Nevada. On Cottonwood creek, which comes down from the coast range, near Fort Reading, they abound, and have cut the cottonwood trees, which line the banks of the stream, of a diameter of from fifteen to eighteen inches….

The value of beaver skins has so much depreciated that they were offered to some of our party, by the bale, at twenty-five cents each.”