286 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



rior ones. A shower takes tlie beaver off the latter ; 

 and it is not very long in wearing bare, and showing 

 the felt in the fori 



The skin of the beaver is also used in the manu- 

 facture of gloves, and sometimes in that of shoes, 

 though in the latter case the shoe, like the bad hat, 

 requires a little glue to make it saleable. Even the 

 gloves are of very inferior quality, as the skin is 

 thick and very rough and loose in the texture; so that 

 if it were not for the fur, the Beavers would not be de- 

 prived of their lives for the sake of their skins. 



There is another part of the beaver which is used 

 in medicine, though not so largely at present as for- 

 merly. It is a peculiarly unctuous product, secreted 

 by a follicle immediately under the tail of the animal. 

 It has a very disagreeable smell, and nauseous taste, 

 but it was once in high request as an antispasmodic, 

 and also as producing an important and specific 

 action on the uterine system. It is still retained in 

 the Pharmacopoeia, under the name of castoreum, or 

 castor. It is not our province to examine its virtues 

 as a drug; but we may observe that it was introduced 

 into medicine at a time when nostrums were held as 

 being beneficial, very much in proportion as they 

 were nasty ; and to what extent this may be the case 

 still, is also without our province. 



In consequence of these uses in the arts, the Beaver 

 has been hunted with great assiduity ; and some idea 

 of the total quantity killed in all parts which Beavers 

 inhabit may be obtained from the fact that, in the 

 year 1808, there were 12G,027 taken to England, 

 from Canada alone. 



Many stratagems are resorted to for the capture 



