BEAVER FUR 161 
At the present time fourteen states have an open season 
for the trapping of beaver. In twenty-five, including every 
one of the Rocky Mountain States, the animal is protected 
at all times, excepting that in most of the western states 
permits may be issued for the taking of beavers injuring or 
destroying property. In Minnesota and New York beavers 
may be trapped under special license; in a part of Oregon 
they may be trapped, and in the other part trapping is for- 
bidden. ‘The beaver is not mentioned in the game laws of 
seven states, all of them old communities where the creature 
was long ago exterminated. 
In Canada five provinces permit the taking of beaver 
during open seasons, and it is protected at all times in five 
others. There is an open season in the northern part of 
Manitoba, and none in the southern. 
The Northern District of Lower California has an 
open season on male beavers only. The law does not specify 
how the sex may be determined before the animal is captured. 
MacFarlane says that for more than a decade subsequent 
to 1821 each beaver district in the territories of the Hudson’s 
Bay Company was restricted to the annual collection of a 
fixed number of beavers. This eventually proved to be of 
much benefit. After the beavers were known to have in- 
creased much in numbers the rule was gradually relaxed. 
“It may be here mentioned that the Company never en- 
couraged the hunting of beaver or any other pelt out of 
season. On the contrary they strictly prohibited the killing 
of beaver in summer, and would only reluctantly accept the 
skins of such animals as they were assured had been abso- 
lutely necessary for food purposes.” 
MacFarlane also says that skins taken by natives of 
Quebec who resort to Bersimis Post in the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence are among the very finest. Labrador, East Main, 
and other Hudson Bay posts also furnish a small number of 
