326 APPENDICES. 



times building by the side of a deserted dwelling, with which 

 they occasionally open a communication. The families vary in 

 the number of individuals of which they are composed, but sel- 

 dom exceed two or four old ones, and twice as many young; the 

 females producing once a year, from two to three or four at a 

 birth, and the young ones generally quitting their parents at the 

 age of three years, and seeking out or building a separate habita- 

 tion for themselves. 



Jn summer-time they feed either upon the bark of trees or 

 upon the green herbage and the berries which grow in their 

 neighborhood ; but in winter their diet is almost restricted to the 

 former article, of which they lay in a large stock previously to 

 the setting in of the frost. From this store they cut away por- 

 tions as their necessities require ; and after tearing off the bark 

 reject the wood, leaving it to float away with the current. Willow, 

 poplar, and birch, are their favorite kinds, and the latter, accord- 

 ing to Cartwright, renders their flesh "the most delicious eating 

 of any animal in the known world." The root of the water-lily 

 also aifords them an occasional supply, and makes them very 

 fat, but gives their flesh a strong and unpleasant flavor. 



It is not, however, for the delicacy of their flesh, but for the 

 peculiar closeness of their soft and glossy fur, that a war of ex- 

 termination is carried on by man against these peaceful and in- 

 noxious beasts. That this fur was at an early period in great 

 request for the manufacture of hats is proved by a proclamation 

 issued in the year 1638, by which it was forbidden to make use 

 of any materials therein except beaver stuff or beaver wool. From 

 this time the attention of the North American Indians has been 

 incessantly directed toward these poor animals, and vast quanti- 

 ties have in consequence been destroyed every year. Of the 

 numbers thus sacrificed, and of the importance of the trade, some 

 idea may be formed by the amount of the sales at various places 

 and at different periods. In 1143 the Hudson's Bay Company 

 alone sold 26,'750 skins; and 121,080 were imported into Ro- 

 chelle. Upwards of 170,000 were exported from Canada in 1788; 

 and Quebec alone, in 1808, supplied this country with 126,927, 

 which, at the estimated average of eighteen shillings and nine 

 pence per skin, would produce no less a sum than £118,994. 



The skin of the young or cub beaver is the most valuable, as 

 being the darkest and the most glossy; and the winter coat is 



