374 THE TRAPPER. 



his abode with an unsophisticated beaver family soon puts 

 them up to all his dodges, so that they, too, can very soon 

 laugh at the hunter. This is really too bad, " wolla 

 muskeag" has no business to worm his way into the 

 bosom of a respectable family, and then corrupt their 

 morals. I cannot say that I like " wolla muskeag." 

 There is a legend of a foolhardy young Indian, who, 

 out of revenge for the loss of his traps, ivould try to 

 shoot the beast. Of course his gun burst in the attempt, 

 and "that young man he no try any more shoot wolla 

 muskeag." All I know of the last-mentioned animal is 

 that in one beaver camp that I broke into I found the 

 young of some animal about the size of musquash, with 

 round tails ; what they were I could not find out. Mus- 

 quash are sometimes found settled in a beaver house, but 

 in a different compartment from the beaver. 



The fur of the beaver when in good season is of a dark- 

 brown colour ; it is usually plucked, i. e. the long coarse 

 hairs pulled out by the furrier before being worked up. 

 Some individuals have much darker coats than others. I 

 have seen one or two almost black, and they are the most 

 valuable. I saw one piebald beaver ; his back was black, 

 his sides white, and belly reddish. Notwithstanding their 

 cleanly habits they are tormented with lice. The teeth 

 are immensely strong and very hard, so much so that in 

 old times the Indians used them for knives. They are 

 semicircular and about 2 inches in length. The bones, 

 too, are harder than those of any other animal in the 

 country. In Richardson's ' Arctic Zoology ' I was sur- 

 prised to see the weight of a full-grown beaver put down 

 at 24 Ibs. If he had said double that weight viz. 48 Ibs. 



