58 



CASTOROI.OGIA. 



many posts were scarcely established before the entire neighbour- 

 hood was destitute of beavers, and the position was abandoned as 

 useless. The period of the fiercest contest was the first sixty 3-ears 

 following the British possession of Canada — 1760 to 1820 — and these 

 six decades, representing the sovereignty of George III, embody the 

 true romance of our histor}', when the heterogeneous elements of our 

 country wore away past differences and settled into peaceful, loyal, 

 national life. The range of beavers though still vast, had become 

 unprofitable as compared with former days, and compromises were 

 now effected, whereby the old polic}^ of extermination disappeared, 

 and an intelligent supervision of the requirements necessary to per- 

 petuate the animal, was instituted b^^ the Hudson's Bay Company, 



MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTIOX OF BEAVER— ABOUT 1850. 



