THE EUROPEAN BEAVER 193 



undoing ; it was diligently pursued for long centuries 

 on account of its many virtues. To begin with, 

 the thick soft felt was employed as early as the day 

 of Herodotus as a trimming for cloaks ; Howell the 

 Good in the ninth century fixed the price of a Welsh 

 beaver skin at the then considerable sum of a 

 hundred and twenty pence. Adam of Bremen in the 

 eleventh century and Olaus Magnus in the sixteenth 

 record that the pelts were much prized ; Belon 

 (assassinated 1564) notes that the French of his day 

 employed beaver cloaks and gloves in inclement 

 weather. Then again, the fur was employed in 

 making hats even before the Norman Conquest ; 

 Chaucer's merchant, "on his head a Flaundrish 

 beaver hat," appears in the Canterbury tales. In 

 the reign of Charles I. beaver hats were first 

 manufactured in England, previous to which time 

 they had been " fetched from beyonde the seas." 

 In 1638 the Government limited hatters to two 

 materials only, beaver fur and wool ; the hats thus 

 made were called " castors/' and were in high 

 estimation. 



Furs intended for felting are treated with nitrate 

 of mercury after the long coarse hairs have been 

 removed, and the fur is then clipped from the skin. 

 In 1858 a new machine was introduced by which 

 the fur was shorn off in an improved method. The 

 white wool from the underparts of the animal appears 

 about this date to have found a ready market in 



