NORTHERN OCEAN. 24k 
filvery white. It was deemed by the Indians a yoxy, 
great curiofity; and I offered three times the eee 9 
ufual price fora few of them, if they could be got; das ie 
put in the courfe of ten years that I remained 
there afterwards, | could not procure another ; 
which is a convincing proof there is no fuch thing 
as a breed of that kind, and that a variation from 
the ufual colour is very rare. 
Black beaver, and that of a beautiful glofs, are 
not uncommon: perhaps they are more plentiful 
at Churchill than at any other Fa@tory in the 
Bay; but it is rare to get more than twelve 
or fifteen of their fkins in the courfe of one year’s 
trade. 
Lefranc, as an Indian, muft have known better 
than to have informed Mr. Dobbs that the bea- 
ver have from ten to fifteen young ata time; or 
if he did, he muft have deceived him wilfully ; 
for the Indians, by killing them in all ftages of 
geftation, have abundant opportunities of afcer- 
taining the ufual number of their offspring. I 
have feen fome hundreds of them killed at the 
~feafons favourable for thofe obfervations, and 
never could difcover more than fix young in one 
female, and that only in two inftances; for the 
ufual number, as I have before obferved, is from 
two to five. 
Befides this unerring method of afcertaining 
the real number of young which any animal has 
at a time, there is another rule to go by, with 
R re{pect 
