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194 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



natives used as many good pelts as they sold and 

 seldom saved the skins of those taken in summer, 

 though they killed for food the whole year round, 

 so that 500,000 per annum is more likely to repre- 

 sent the aggregate destruction by man." How 

 nearly correct this is it is impossible to say, but 

 we do know that whatever the number that have 

 been killed each year it has nearly always been 

 greater than it should have been, a statement 

 easily proved by the rapid disappearance of the 

 animals throughout the greater part of their range. 



The following account written by Mr. R. Mac- 

 Farlane, who was chief factor of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, and published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution (Washington) gives some interesting 

 facts and figures : ** If let alone, or not much 

 disturbed by hunting, the beaver will rapidly 

 increase in numbers. In proof of this statement, I 

 would mention that many extensive tracts of 

 country in which they had become scarce or had 

 wholly or almost entirely disappeared (as a result 

 of the keen and very costly rivalry in trade which 

 had for many years existed between the Northwest 

 Company of Montreal and the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany of England previous to their coalition in 1821, 

 it was uncertain for some time * which of them 

 lost most money — neither of them gained money,' 

 while the general demoralization of Indians and 

 whites was very lamentable) they afterwards re- 

 covered under the fostering policy of protection 



