THE BEAVER. 373 



One is by cutting a hole in the ice (which is never thick) 

 over the entrance of the camp, and putting a steel trap on 

 the doorstep, as it were. The other is by chopping a lane 

 in the ice between the doorway and the provision store, 

 and driving in a row of dry wood pickets, leaving a little 

 gap in the centre of the fence thus constructed. In this 

 gap a little twig is stuck to give notice by its vibrations 

 of the approach of the animal. The hunter stands over 

 this at night, and, when he sees the twig shake, strikes 

 sharply with his spear, and generally succeeds in impaling 

 the beaver. 



The lumberers and country people have a lot of yarns 

 about the beaver. One is that they spring steel traps 

 with a piece of stick before crossing them. Another is 

 that they have the power of making logs of wood sink to 

 the bottom which would naturally float, &c. I can quite 

 imagine how they became possessed of these delusions. 

 The most satisfactory accounts I got about them was 

 from the Indians, but they, too, rather border on the 

 marvellous. For instance, the Micmacs told me of a 

 different sort of beaver, which is now almost extinct, 

 with a round tail, called by them " wolla muskeag " (the 

 beaver is " quobeet " in their tongue). This animal, 

 according to my informants, has the same sort of fur as 

 quobeet, and, although much smaller than that animal, 

 is possessed of such extraordinary strength and cuteness 

 as to enable it to defy the hunter. As carcajou is the 

 bugbear of the marten trapper, so is " wolla muskeag " of 

 the beaver hunter. If they lived by themselves it would 

 not matter so much, but the mischief of it is that they 

 prefer to live with quobeet, and one of them taking up 



