30 Transactions of the 



wonderful. Whole clearings are often made by the little 

 animals in the forest, and the markings on the trees are said 

 to be precisely like Indian ' chopping.' The felling process 

 is a most ingenious one : the notches on one side are placed 

 higher than those on the other, and thus a fall in any 

 required direction is secured. The trees are always cut down 

 above the lodges, and thence they are floated down the 

 stream, one, two, or more Beavers directing the passage of 

 the trunk, swimming beside it, and urging it towards its 

 destination. The head of a large tree is invariably made to 

 fall towards the land, and it is freed of its branches before 

 being dragged into the water. The Beaver can snap through 

 a branch as thick as a walking-stick at a single bite, and 

 the cut is as clean as that of a chisel. Trees with trunks as 

 thick as a man's thigh can also be felled in a few minutes 

 by the action of the Beaver's teeth, and those of even larger 

 growth are not insuperable obstacles to its rodent powers. 

 One great objection to the domestication of the Beaver is the 

 possession of these formidable incisors, for, though capable 

 of being perfectly trained in other respects, it never forgets 

 how to use its weapons. At Port McLeod a tame Beaver 

 sometimes amused itself ' in a very unpleasant manner, for 

 occasionally, in the morning, the whole of the furniture was 

 prostrate, the Beaver having gnawed through the legs of the 

 tables and chairs ! ' 



The hunting of the Beaver is generally conducted by the 

 Indians in the following manner. They go cautiously along 

 the edge of the ice, touching the frozen ground frequently 

 with a stick. Whenever they know by the peculiar sound 

 that they have found the land passage of a Beaver's biu-row 

 they plug it up and break into the cave below. Should the 

 Beaver be away, they then quickly make a large hole in the 

 ice, observing if the water below should become rippled, which 

 would be a sure sign that a Beaver had just passed into it. 

 Should it seek to regain its hole, either from land or water, 

 it finds the passage blocked up, and is speedily shot ere it 

 can escape. ' Trapping ' is a different operation. For this, a 

 supply of the powerful smelling ' castoreum ' is to be pro- 

 cured. This is a glandular secretion, obtained from pouches 

 near the base of the Beaver's tail : it was formerly used by 

 perfumers and in medicine, but its use is now almost re- 

 stricted to the trapping of the animal that produces it. 

 A small quantity of the castoreum, steeped in rum and 

 cinnamon, is smeared along the Beaver ' runs ' (or paths). 

 The trap — a good-sized steel one, fitted with a pair of strong 



