SH Archive Beavers built stone dams at Niagara?

[Archive]

Sorry for the links, still having issues getting pics on the forum. Sigh.

I found this quasi-atlas in the New York Public Library Digital Collection in the "Pageant of America" in the collection by Miriam and Ira D. Wallach called: "A Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain in America" by Herman Moll.

So the east coast map has an insert in the top right corner of the second page; a sketch which depicts a whole platoon of beavers working assembly-line style below Niagara Falls constructing dam.

Carrying sticks in their arms and stones on their tails.

I kid you not.


Here is the narrative below the sketch as best I can interpret the handwriting. Of course, it is pretty ambiguous and doesn't say that the beavers use stones despite what the picture above implies.

"A View of the Industry of the Beavers of Canada in making Dams to stop the Course of a Rivulet in order to form a great Lake, about which
they build their Habitations. To effect this, they fell large Trees with their Teeth, in such a manner as to make them come Cross the Rivulet, to lay the foundation of the Dam: they make Mortar, work up, and finish the whole with great order and wonderfull (sic) Dexterity. The Beavers have two Doors to their Lodges, one to the water and the other to the Land side. According to the French Accounts"

Sure that was just a fluke, I kept digging around and found a photo later in the book simply titled "beaver dam." It is obviously the remnants of a man-made fortress -- complete with window and "ye olde ladder!"

Really.


No location or date or given for the photo per se, but the entire collection spans 1860-1920 time range.

The absurdity of the narrative to hide America's history knows no bounds!

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[Onijunbei]

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Username: Onijunbei
Date: 2020-07-04 18:10:00
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According to the French Accounts"

It was a joke, on a map. The British and French were constantly at war. Historically they never liked each other. So the map maker is making fun of the French.

 

[Archive]

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-04 18:19:49
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According to the French Accounts"

It was a joke, on a map. The British and French were constantly at war. Historically they never liked each other. So the map maker is making fun of the French.

Thanks for that insight! However, it doesn't explain why they have a man-made dam labeled as a beaver dam in the photo.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2020-07-04 18:32:34
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Sure that was just a fluke, I kept digging around and found a photo later in the book simply titled "beaver dam." It is obviously the remnants of a man-made fortress -- complete with window and "ye olde ladder!"

Can you post a link to the actual book please? The one you have here is directly linked to the image.

Edit: I think I found it here.

Where is this building at? I'm a bit lost.

This here looks like an interesting piece of info. Most of the links do not work in there though:

• The Original Beaver Map & Its Legacy

 

[Archive]

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-04 22:30:14
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I found the picture of the beaver dam in the NYC Digital Photo Collection which credited it to Herman Moll's book which had the beaver dam construction sketch, but I did not see the photo!

There is some interesting stuff in this book that deserves study, especially that last page, too bad the writing is so small.

- NYPL Digital Collections

There is no further description with the photo, so we have no idea where this was taken, just that it was linked to that book, which it does not seem to be in...typical BS.

Now the book you linked is credited to a different author, Nicolad De Fer put out the century before Moll's book.
This passage supposedly explains his logic behind such a rendering of beaver building:

Why? The answer is manifold, and helps to explain the vignette’s enduring popularity for centuries following. By the eighteenth century, the Eurasian beaver was nearly extinct after centuries of dogged hunting in order to obtain their valuable castor oil and pelts. Thus the vision of a multitude of beavers was not only a novelty to western Europeans, but a recognizable promise of apparently instant and endless wealth.

Meanwhile, as industry in Europe became more regulated, groups of people worked in tandem to complete a single large task. According to the Osher Map Library, the actions of the beavers “mimicked the carefully regulated division of labor that was by 1700 increasingly common in the construction of major public works.” The fantasy of the beavers’ teamwork against the splendid background of the falls suggested to the potential explorer that if critters could realize monumental infrastructure in the New World, a human community could achieve even more. De Fer’s beavers are supplemented by a key, in French, of the various tasks that employed the beavers en masse.
.

So, I'm wondering why Moll included De Fer's famous beaver sketch on his later map?

Hmmmm...

Interesting rabbit hole...makes you wonder what else they stylized on these maps to deceive the colonists...