THE LURE OE THE BEAVER 



BY D. LANGE 



With Photographs by the Author 



© 



1-:A\ EKS iKi 



L-cn called animal (.■ii'Mneers, and 



the title is by no means an empty honor. No ani- 

 mal jjossesses such remarkable constructive 

 al)ilily as the beaver. Even the most scep- 

 tical scientist who sees the dams they ha\e con- 

 structed, the dome-shaped houses they ha\e built, the 

 canals thev have dug, the trees they ha\e felled and 

 the piles of brush and 

 poles they pickle for their 

 winter food will marvel at 

 the intellij^ence ot these 

 furred dwellers of the wil- 

 derness, and will secretl}' 

 wonder, if after all, beav- 

 ers might not possess a 

 spark of human reason. 



The Chi])pewa Indians 

 belie\'ed that the beaver 

 ])eo])le once did possess 

 both human reason and 

 a human language, but 

 Manitou had to take awa> 

 from them the power of 

 speech so that ilu'v would 

 not become wdser than llu- 

 Indians themsehes. 



When North .\nierica 

 was discovered, the beav- 

 ers lived on almost every 

 stream and lake north of 

 Mexico and were an im- 

 portant source of both 

 food and clothing for all 



the tribes iidiabiting tlu' |iresent N'orthern Slates an< 

 Canada. So numerous and so generally distributed 

 were these animals that the needs of the Indians made 

 no impression on their 

 numbers. 



\\ ith tlu' increase' of 

 trade between .\merica ami 

 Etiro]je the Ijeaver became 

 a veritable animal of fate 

 to both Indians and W liites, 

 and within historic times 

 no other animal has ])layed 

 such a fateful jtarl in tlu- 

 suppression of one race and 

 the spread of another and 

 indeed in the conquest of 

 a whole continent by the 

 white race as the American 

 beaver. Beaver wool, the 



tine dense fiu' which jirotecls the beaver from the icy 

 water of his habitat, was found to be the most suitable 

 material in the manufacture of tine hats, and for more 

 than two centuries, until 1S•^"). the I'",uro])ean markets 

 were insatiable in their deni.ind for liea\er furs. From 

 a \er\' modest beginning the .\merican fur trade rose 

 to world wide jiroportions and importance. Such in- 

 trepid explorers, pioneers 

 and traders as Kit Carson, 

 jmi Rridger, George Cart- 

 wright, John Jacob xAstor, 

 Larpcntctu'. the two 

 llenrys and unnumbered 

 nameless and forgotten 

 ail\ cnturers and explor- 

 ers who wooed tortime, 

 ^ulfered untold hardship, 

 laced death, and commit- 

 ted d a r k a nd bloody 

 crimes as loyal servants 

 of three great rival fui 

 companit's. all followed 

 the lure of the beaver. 

 I'liey followed him to the 

 small headwaters of the 

 Mississippi and St. Law- 

 rence and they crossed the 

 <li\ides and followed hiiu 

 down the, streams which 

 send their waters to the 

 distant Pacific and to the 

 ice-bound Arctic. 



When the Americans 

 1 had w^on their libert\- in the Revolutionary War, to- 



OUK FRIEND THE BEAVER 



'I'lie clever, sagacious, hard-working animal — the chief engineer of the 

 animal worlil- not so protected by game laws that the chance of his he- 

 coming extinct is growing remote. 



bacco was no longer used 

 but beaver skins were sti 



Coiirtfsy oj tlu- American Museum Journal 



YOUNG BEAVERS AT HOME 

 'art of the new group recently constructed in the American Museum. 



as currenc}' in Old Virginia, 

 1 the standard of value in the 

 counlr\' ot the up]icr (ireat 

 Lakes and in vast regions 

 farther north and west. A 

 lew records from the Jesuit 

 Relations and other docu- 

 ments of the eighteenth 

 century ;ire interesting, 

 and the ])resent day reatler 

 ma_\' e\en find grains of 

 humor in them. One of the 

 Jesuit h'athers reports that, 

 "in Ki.-ifi Monsieur de la 

 i'oterie opened a taxern at 

 Three Ri\ ers at which wine 

 v\'as sold to the savages, 

 two jjots for a winter 



600 



