THE BEAVER. 375 



he would have been much nearer the mark. Beaver that 

 have been left long in traps are frequently gnawed about 

 the tail and hinder parts by their comrades. Whether 

 they do this in their endeavours to bring them home to 

 camp, or as a polite request for them to " move on," I do 

 not know. 



In old times beaver skins were the recognized standard 

 by which all other goods were valued, and this I suppose 

 was one of the reasons which led to the animal being 

 chosen as the crest or emblem of Canada. In those days 

 1 Ib. of spring beaver was equal to a beaver skin taken at 

 any other season, to 3 sable, to 10 musquash, to 2 gallons 

 of rum, to 2^ gallons of molasses, to 30 Ibs. of flour, &c. 

 Beaver skins were the currency of the fur countries. 



And truly Canadians may be proud of the beaver. As 

 I remarked before, their works give the stranger who sees 

 them for the first time an idea of human intelligence, 

 industry, and forethought. The dams, even mistaken 

 for the works of man, are constructed with an amount 

 of skill which leads the visitor to form a high estimate of 

 the local engineer; and if he investigates more closely 

 the habits and modes of life of these extraordinary 

 animals, he will find, in their domestic habits, in their 

 foresight in providing food for the morrow, in the way 

 they regulate their water supply, so that in the highest 

 freshet and the most protracted droughts they are on the 

 one hand neither deluged nor on the other restricted in 

 supply ; in the construction and fortification of their lodges, 

 and finally in their system of government which drives 

 the drones out of the community, and regulates the size 

 of the different households and villages according to the 



