ANIMAL LIFE IN LABRADOR 437 



along. Being short of food, as they always are, and the 

 meat of the beaver being most succulent, there was a double 

 incentive, for they would carry the skins away and sell 

 them on the Gulf Shore, where these Indians go for sup- 

 plies and for their religious ceremonies. Meanwhile, they 

 not only kill beavers, but all the other fur which the white 

 settlers depend upon for their living. We have had more 

 than once to take refuge under the fact that, though we are 

 magistrates, we are not policemen. 



The beaver is the gentlest of our wood folk, strong, heavy, 

 and active. He is entirely devoted to peace; even when 

 caught when coming out of his house by a man's hand, he 

 will not turn and bite, but will allow himself to be lifted 

 out of the water and then dealt with at leisure. The humble 

 muskrat is often caught lodging in the house of his larger 

 congener, who appears not to mind this intrusion on his 

 family circle. Otters, also, have been seen to enter occupied 

 beaver houses, and though it seems unworthy of them, they 

 have been found guilty of killing their hosts. 



One trapper told me that he was watching a beaver 

 house, waiting to stake the last door as soon as the owner 

 of the house returned. The ice was quite clear, but four or 

 five feet thick. Hearing some animal crackling and creak- 

 ing along the bank, he lay and watched. Presently he saw 

 a pair of otters swim out under the ice and enter the still 

 open door of the beaver house. 



On his logging brook, Mr. Harry Crowe had dammed 

 the brook in order to raise the level for log floating. This 

 happened to interfere with a beaver whose house was just 

 above, so he had to build the house higher and higher till 

 ft was like an Eiffel Tower. But one night he carne down- 



