186 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



not only the best thing and the easiest to make use 

 of in this country, but it is also the coin of greatest 

 value. And the best of it is that after it has been 

 used as a covering * it is found to be ready-made 

 gold and silver. You know in France how much 

 consideration is given to the style of a gown. 

 Here all there is to do is to cut it out of a beaver 

 skin and the savage woman straightway sews it to 

 her little child with a moose tendon, with admirable 

 promptness. Who ever wishes to pay in this coin 

 for the goods he buys here saves thereby the twenty- 

 five per cent, that the market price gives them 

 over that in France for the risk they run upon the 

 sea — and certainly it seems that commutative 

 justice allows that, if what comes to us from France 

 is dearer for having floated over the sea, what we 

 have here is worth something for having been 

 chased in the woods and over the snow, and for 

 being the wealth of the Country, especially as 

 those who are paid with this coin always find 

 therein their reckoning and something more." 

 Twenty years later (1656-7) we find the situation 

 has scarcely changed, as shown by the following 

 extract from the Jesuit Relations : " That great 

 council was held on the 24th of the month of July 

 when all the Nation placed in the hands of 

 Achiendas(3 (who is our Father Superior) the 

 settlement of the difficulty between the Sonnon- 



* The value of the skins for hatters' purposes is increased by 

 their having been used. 



