The Hunting of the Snark is a nonsense poem written by English writer Lewis Carroll between 1874 and 1876. The poem describes a ship with a crew of ten trying to find the Snark, an animal which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. Among the hunters is a lace-making beaver, and a butcher, whose only skill is in butchering beavers. This picture, the third of Henry Holiday's original illustrations for the poem, accompanies the following stanza:
Illustration credit: Henry Holiday; restored by Adam CuerdenYet still, ever after that sorrowful day,
Whenever the Butcher was by,
The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,
And appeared unaccountably shy.