00-KOO-HOO PLAYS THE GAME 129 



hundreds and thousands of years. How? By going into rocky, 

 useless valleys and building the dams that checked the rushing 

 rivers that were constantly robbing much rich soil from the 

 surrounding country and carrying it down and out to sea. And 

 his dams, moreover, not only held up those treacherous highway- 

 men, but took the loot from them and let it settle in the valleys, 

 where, as years rolled on, it grew and grew into endless great 

 expansions of level meadow lands that now afford much of the 

 most fertile farming soil to be found in North America; and 

 thus the great industry of those silent workers, who lived ages 

 and ages ago, is even to-day benefiting mankind. And thus, 

 too, that great work is being steadily carried on by the living 

 beavers of to-day. Could any country in the world have chosen 

 a more inspiring creature than Canada has chosen for her 

 national symbol? 



When, on his fall and spring expeditions, Oo-koo-hoo was 

 hunting beavers with the waters free of ice, he placed steel traps 

 in their runways, either just below the surface of the water, or 

 on the bank; and the only bait he used in both cases was the 

 rubbing of castorum on near-by bushes. Also, he built dead- 

 falls much like those he built for bear, but of course much 

 smaller; and again the bait was castorum, but this time it was 

 rubbed on a bit of rabbit skin which was then attached to the 

 bait stick of the deadfall. The deadfalls he built for beavers 

 were nearly always made of dead tamarack — never of green 

 poplar — otherwise the beavers would have pulled them to 

 pieces for the sake of the wood. 



Further, Oo-koo-hoo told me that in the spring he sometimes 

 broke open beaver dams and set traps near the breaks in order 

 to catch the beavers when they came to repair the damage. 

 Such a mode of trapping was, he said, equally successful 

 whether or not there was ice upon the water. He also told me 

 that he had seen other Indians catch beaver with a net made of 

 No. 10 twine, with a three-and-a-half-inch mesh, but that, 



