240 
E7RE. 
cee ace 
December, 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
would be no neceflity of leaving them to rot, or 
for finging them in the fire, as related by the 
Author. During my refidence among the Indi- 
ans I have known fome individuals kill more 
_ beaver, and other heavy furrs, in the courfe of a 
Winter, than their wives could manage ; but the 
overplus was never wantonly deftroyed, but al- 
ways given to their relations, or to thofewho — 
had been lefs fuccefsful; fo that the whole of the _ 
great hunters labours were always brought to the 
Factory. It is indeed too frequently a cuftom 
among the Southern Indians to finge many ot- 
ters, as well as beaver ;.but this is feldom done, 
except in Summer, when their fkins are of fo lit- 
tle value as to be fcarcely worth the duty; on 
which account it has been always thought im- 
politic to encourage the natives to kill fuch valu- 
able animals at a time when their fkins are notin 
feafon. | 
‘The white beaver, mentioned by Lefranc, are 
fo rare, that inftead of being “ blown upon by the 
Company’s Factors,” as he afferts, I rather doubt 
whether one-tenth of them ever faw one during — 
the time of their refidence in this country. In 
the courfe of twenty years experience in the 
countries about Hudfon’s Bay, though I travel- 
led fix hundred miles to the Weft of the fea-coaft, 
I never faw but one white beaver-fkin, and it had 
many reddifh and brown hairs along the ridge of 
the back, and the fides and belly were of a glofly 
filvery 
