December 



248 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. a custom among the Southern Indians to singe many otters, 

 as well as beaver ; but this is seldom done, except in Summer, 

 when their skins are of so little value as to be scarcely worth 

 the duty ; on which account it has been always thought im- 

 politic to encourage the natives to kill such valuable animals 

 at a time when their skins are not in season. 



The white beaver, mentioned by Lefranc, are so rare, that 

 instead of being " blown upon by the Company's Factors," as 

 he asserts, I rather doubt whether one-tenth of them ever saw 

 one during the time of their residence in this country. In the 

 course of twenty years experience in the countries [241] about 

 Hudson's Bay, though I travelled six hundred miles to the 

 West of the sea-coast, I never saw but one white beaver-skin, 

 and it had many reddish and brown hairs along the ridge of 

 the back, and the sides and belly were of a glossy silvery white. 

 It was deemed by the Indians a great curiosity ; and I offered 

 three times the usual price for a few of them, if they could 

 be got ; but in the course of ten years that I remained there 

 afterward, I could not procure another ; which is a convincing 

 proof there is no such thing as a breed of that kind, and that 

 a variation from the usual colour is very rare. 



Black beaver, and that of a beautiful gloss, are not un- 

 common : perhaps they are more plentiful at Churchill than at 

 any other Factory in the Bay ; but it is rare to get more than 

 twelve or fifteen of their skins in the course of one year's trade. 



Lefranc, as an Indian, must have known better than to 

 have informed Mr. Dobbs that the beaver have from ten to 

 fifteen young at a time ; or if he did, he must have deceived 

 him wilfully ; for the Indians, by killing them in all stages of 

 gestation, have abundant opportunities of ascertaining the 

 usual number of their offspring. I have seen some hundreds 

 of them killed at the seasons favourable for those observa- 

 tions, and never could discover more than six young in one 

 female, and that only in two [242] instances ; for the usual 

 number, as I have before observed, is from two to five. 



