1274 THE RODENTS 



ponds may cover many acres. Frequently a formation of peat commences round the 

 edges of the ponds, and this may extend over the whole area, converting it into 

 a swampy tract known as a beaver meadow. A considerable part of the city of 

 Montreal is built upon such beaver meadows. 



In summer beavers generally forsake the neighborhood of their lodges to travel 

 up or down the stream, occasionally, as already mentioned, taking considerable 

 journeys on land. With the advent of early autumn they return to their winter 

 quarters, and at once set about the necessary repairs to the dam and lodges, and 

 the collection of a supply of food for the winter. 



The beaver is hunted in North America, not only for its valuable fur, 



but likewise for the substance known as castoreum, which is contained 

 Uses and 



Hunting ^ n two elongated glands at the hinder part of the body, while its flesh 

 is also used as an article of food. Castoreum is a waxy substance 

 with a peculiar smell, and is used in medicine, although chiefly on the Continent. 

 It sells, according to Mr. Poland, from thirty-eight to forty-five shillings per pound, 

 and no less than 1,486 pounds of this substance were sold in London alone in the 

 year 1891. Formerly the great demand for beaver fur was for the manufacture of 

 hats, but since the supersession of silk for beaver hair in this manufacture, the fur 

 has been used for more ordinary purposes. Mr. Poland states that the number of 

 beaver skins sold by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1891 was 63,419, while in the 

 3 r ear 1743 upward of 127,080 were imported into Rochelle alone. The price, accord- 

 ing to the same writer, varies from 55. 3d. to 6s. gd. per skin. The incisor teeth of 

 the beaver were used by the North-American Indians, and also by some of the 

 ancient inhabitants of the Old World, as cutting instruments, the bases being fixed 

 into a wooden handle with the aid of twine or thongs. 



Before the advance of civilization a large number of beavers were killed in 

 America by the native Indians for the sake of their skins and flesh, but the slaugh- 

 ter was not such as to have any marked effect on their numbers. Some appear to 

 have been taken in wooden traps, but the favorite method was to attack a lodge 

 in the months of January and February. A party of Indians male and female 

 would on such occasions proceed to a beaver colony, and, after cutting a series of 

 holes in the ice around each lodge, in which nets were placed, the lodges themselves 

 were dug open. Some of the animals would be killed in their sleeping places, 

 others were caught in the nets, while others were hunted by the dogs accompanying 

 the party to their burrows, where they were dug out. Some individuals were, 

 however, always allowed to escape, in order to repopulate the colony. With the 

 increasing demand for skins as the country was opened up by Europeans, the 

 Indians resorted to more effectual modes of capture, the rivers and ponds being 

 staked across at the commencement of a raid, in a manner which prevented the es- 

 cape of a single member of the colony. Subsequently steel traps were introduced, 

 but, from the nature of the beaver's food, it was long before an attractive bait 

 could be discovered. At length it was found that castoreum itself was a deadly 

 lure, and from that date the traps have always been baited with some preparation of 

 that drug. So attractive is castoreum to the animals by which it is produced, that 

 a beaver which swam away with a trap attached to one leg was known to be 



