ffieaber 



LTHOUGH I have seen thousands of beaver 

 skins at the Hudson Bay Posts, and a few 

 live animals brought down at times by the In- 

 dians, I had never, previous to our finding this 

 lodge, seen them in the wild state. In the book 

 on natural history that Mr. Lawler . had given 

 me, I had read many statements about the beaver, 

 which I afterwards found were most absurd. 

 Some of them were that the animal could not live 

 out of water, and that when it did have to land 

 to cut its food, the tail was always kept immer- 

 sed in water; that the upper part of the body when 

 cooked tasted like meat and the lower portion 

 of tail like fish ; that it used its tail like a trowel 

 to build its mud hut; that a medicinal oil was 

 obtained by boiling the tail, and many other ridi- 

 culous stories. I need not tell my readers that 

 all this was imaginary. The flesh has been des- 

 cribed by some more recent authors as bitter and 

 disagreeable. I dare say this was perfectly true 

 of the specimens they tasted. One might say 

 the same, or worse, of the ox or sheep, if he was 

 eating some of the flesh after it had lain a week 

 or more with the offal in it. The meat of the 

 beaver is delicate and palatable when in proper 



