The American Beaver and His Works [Animals] [Cognizance] [Psychology]

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co, 1868. First edition. Hardcover. 330pp. Octavo [24 cm] Brown cloth over boards with a gilt stamped title and beaver vignette on the backstrip, and double blind ruled borders on the covers. Illustrated plates 6 and 7 and pp.87-90 completely detached, but present; text block cracked here and there; 1/4" losses from the ends of the backstrip; fading to the spine, and a bit of fading to the edges of the boards; contemporary gift inscription on the front free endpaper. Complete with 23 plates and 1 foldout map. Good. Item #59426

In this work, Morgan champions his belief that animals need to be understood as living, thinking, and communicating beings.

With regards to the Railroad passing through the beaver district, Morgan writes, "Having been associated in this enterprise from its commencement, as one of the directors of the Railroad Company, and as one of its stockholders, business called me to Marquette, first in 1855, and nearly every summer since to the present time... My friend, Gilbert D. Johnson, Superintendent of the Lake Superior Mine, had established boat stations at convenient points upon the Carp and Esconauba Rivers, and to him I am specially indebted first, for a memorable experience in brook-trout fishing, and secondly, for an introduction to the works of the beaver within the areas traversed by these streams. Our course, in passing up and down, was obstructed by beaver dams at short intervals, from two to three feet high, over which we were compelled to draw our boat. Their numbers and magnitude could not fail to surprise as well as interest any observer. Although constructed in the solitude of the wilderness, where the forces of nature were still actively at work, it was evident that they had existed and been maintained for centuries by the permanent impression produced upon the rugged features of the country. The results of the persevering labors of the beaver were suggestive of human industry."

Price: $300.00

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