'an epicukean dish. 267 



sex, and after having been conquered and 

 driven away from the lodge, have become 

 idlers from a kind of necessity. The work- 

 ing beavers, on the contrary, associate, males, 

 females, and young together. 



Beavers are caught, and found in good order 

 at all seasons of the year in the Kocky Moun- 

 tains; for, in those regions the atmosphere is 

 never warm enough to injure the fur; in the 

 lowlands, however, the trappers rarely begin 

 to capture them before the first of September, 

 and they relinquish the pursuit about the last 

 of May. This is understood to be along the 

 Missouri, and the (so called) Spanish country. 



Cartwright found a beaver that weighed forty- 

 five pounds ; and we were assured that they 

 have been caught weighing sixty-one pounds 

 before being cleaned. The only portions of 

 their flesh that are considered fine eating, are 

 the sides of the belly, the rump, the tail, and 

 the liver. The tail, so much spoken of by trav- 

 ellers and by various authors, as being very de- 

 licious eating, we did not think equalled their 

 descriptions. It has nearly the taste of beef 

 marrow, but is rather oily, and cannot be par- 

 taken of unless in a very moderate quantity, 

 except by one whose stomach is strong enough 

 to digest the most greasy substances. 



Beavers become very fat at the approach of 



