THE LURE OF THE BEAVER 



603 



braves. It is quite fitting that the beaver has been 

 given a place on the national coat-of-arms of Canada. 



In the valuable historical documents known as the 

 Jesuit Relations, no animal is so frequently mentioned 

 as the beaver, and the journals of all the early traders 

 and explorers show that from about 1600 to 1825 and 

 even later, the beaver was over a region larger than 

 all western Europe, of as much economic importance 

 to the inhabitants as gold was in the early days of 

 California and as cotton is now in our Southern States. 



Under these conditions the slaughter and destruc- 

 tion of the beaver proceeded at a fearful rate. The 

 annual export of beaver skins probably did not much 

 exceed half a 

 million, but it is 

 likely that two 

 millions of the 

 animals were 

 killed every year. 



The beaver 

 hunter, like the 

 placer miner, ex- 

 hausts the source 

 of his wealth in 

 any one locality 

 very soon, and 

 is compelled to 

 move into new 

 regions. Beavers, 

 in spite of their 

 apparent sagac- 

 ity, are easily 

 caught, and as 

 their size and 

 manner of life 

 make conceal- 

 ment impossible, 

 the beaver popu- 

 lation has so rap- 

 i d 1 y decreased 

 that today there 

 are probably not 

 more than 500,000 of them alive in the whole of North 

 America, although the original beaver population of 

 ihe continent must have been at least 60,000,000. 



In 1871 the Hudson's Bay Company still furnished 

 174,461 skins, in 1905 the supply had fallen to 54,119. 

 The total production of beaver skins from 1672 to 

 1902, largely based on figures of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, is estimated at 3,000,000 skins, and valued 

 at $100,000,000. 



About 1825 the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed 

 the Northwest Company and the ruinous competition 

 in the fur trade and the unrestricted liquor traffic came 

 to an end. The company did much for the Indians 

 and prevented the wanton extermination of beaver in 

 its territory. About the same time silk was substituted 

 for beaver hair in the manufacture of hats, and this 



Cutirtesy of the American Aluseitm Journal 



HOW BEAVERS CUT TREES 



Black ash cut by beavers near Port Kent, New York. Gift of W. H. Howell, on exhibit at the 

 American Museum. The cuttings show characteristic marks of the beaver's teeth. 



invention also checked the destruction of the animals. 

 Since that time beaver skins came within reach of the 

 furrier. A good beaver skin now brings the trapper 

 about $8.00 and a full length beaver coat is worth 

 about $200.00. Beaver fur is not in prime condition 

 until February and March, but in the early days the 

 Indians killed some for both food and fur at all sea- 

 sons, although they did most of their trapping during 

 the winter months. 



When, in 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company sur- 

 rendered its sovereignty to the Dominion of Canada, 

 the humble wild fur bearers lost their best protector, 

 and are now rapidly following the buffalo and the elk 



in all regions 

 where they are 

 not rigidly pro- 

 tected. With 

 them the most 

 interesting ani- 

 mals of our 

 whole fauna, the 

 founders of 

 American c o m - 

 merce, the first 

 engineers and the 

 first lumbermen 

 of North Ameri- 

 ca, will be seen 

 and heard no 

 more on the 

 streams in the 

 forest, where 

 their ancestors 

 have worked and 

 played since the 

 leaves of the as- 

 pen first began 

 to whisper in the 

 summer breeze. 



Where, how- 

 ever, the beaver 

 is actually pro- 

 tected, it not only holds its own, but increases rapidly. 

 This has been shown in Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, and elsewhere, for under favorable environ- 

 ment no animal is better fitted to take care of itself. 



In 1902 three beavers, one male and two females, 

 were set free in the Itasca Forest Reserve of Minne- 

 sota, where the species had become extinct. The lib- 

 erated beavers built a house at the mouth of Nicollet 

 creek that same fall and within ten years they had 

 spread over the whole of the Reserve and had built 

 about thirty lodges and had made half a dozen large 

 ponds. 



In a settled farming country, beavers would not be 

 desirable, because their dams will flood meadows and 

 they cut down quite a few trees and kill others by 

 flooding their roots. In a wild country, however, the 



