Natural History and Hunting of tlie Beaver. 61 



and spear the beaver, from a canoe, as he floats, eating a branch taken 

 from the shore ; or they shoot him Avhen he is in shallow water, but 

 not in deep water, as he sinks on receiving the shot. They also block 

 up the opening into his house, break through the wall, and shoot or 

 spear him. 



The flesh of the beaver, especially when first smoked and then 

 roasted, is not at all unwelcome as an article of food. The tail, when 

 boiled, is a noted article of trappers' luxury, though, forsooth, if the 

 truth must be told, rather gristly and fiit, and rather too much for the 

 stomach of any one but a northwestern hunter or explorer. "He is 

 a devil of a fellow," they say, on the Rocky Mountain slopes ; he can eat 

 two heavers^ tails!" The scrapings of a beaver's skin form one of the 

 strongest descriptions of glue. The Indians at Fort jNI'Leod's Lake 

 use it to paint their paddles ; and the water does not seem to affect it. 



When beaver was 308. per lb., Rocky-Mountain beavers were 

 piled up on each side of a trade gun until they v.ere on a level 

 with the muzzle, and this was the price ! The muskets cost in 

 England some 15.5. These were the days of the "free trapper" — 

 joyous, brave, generous, and reckless — the hero of romance, round 

 whom many a tale of daring circles, the love of the Indian damsel, the 

 beau ideal of a man, in the eyes of the half-breed, whose ambition 

 never rose higher than a coureur de bois — a class of men who, with all 

 their failings, we can not but be sorry to see disappearing from the fur 

 countries. The fall of beavers' peltry rang their death-knell ; and, as 

 a separate profession, trapping is almost extinct, being nearly altogether 

 followed, at uncertain spells, by the Indians and lower class of half- 

 breeds. The world is fast filling in ; the emigrant, with his bullock- 

 team and his plough, is fast destroying all the romance of the far 

 West — fast filling up with the stern prose of the plow and the reap- 

 ing-machine and the whistle of steam what was once only claimed by 

 the pleasant poetry of the songs of the voyageur, the coiireur de bois — 

 the hunters and trappers of the great fur companies ! But perhaps it 

 is better after all ! 



The beaver is easily domesticated, and learns to eat any vegetable 

 matter, but requires water occasionally. One kept at Fort M'Leod 

 got blind : but if it got access to water, it laved some on its eyes, and 

 generally in an hour quite recovered its sight. It used to gather car- 

 penter's shavings together, and carry them to the door ; if the door 

 was shut, it forced them up against it, finishing with a slap of its tail, 

 as jf it were building a dam. It had a great antipathy to the Lidians. 

 It would come into the Indian Hall, where the natives were seated, as 

 is their wont, back to the wall. It would first take their fire-bag, then 

 their axe, and so on until it had carried everything to the door. 



