CASTOROLOGIA. Ill 



"The sixth is the Coat Beaver, which is worn till it is half 

 greased, and is worth 4^. 6d. per pound. 



"The seventh, the Muscovite dry Beaver, of a fine skin, covered 

 over with a silky hair ; they wear it in Russia, and comb away all 

 the short down, which they make into stuffs and other works, leav- 

 ing nothing but the silky hair ; this is worth 45. 6d. per pound. 



' ' The eighth is the Mittain Beaver, cut out for that purpose to 

 make Mittains, to preserve them from the cold, and are greased by 

 being used, and are worth i^. gd. per pound." 



The sale of beaver skins by the pound was a very early custom 

 which has survived until now, and arose thus. Beavers were for- 

 merly used exclusively for hatters' purposes, and in a "Report 

 upon the Petition Relating to the Manufacture of Hats," presented 

 to the British government in 1752, indirectly we gather some most 

 valuable hints concerning the traffic in beaver skins. The hatter, of 

 course, used only the beaver wool or fur which had been removed 

 from the skin and separated from the long, coarse, outer hairs — the 

 "King" hairs — and was worth in this state from twenty to forty, 

 and sometimes, even fifty shillings per pound. But the steadily ad- 

 vancing price of beaver seems to have reduced the profits of the first 

 dealers to such a degree that recourse was had to the fatal plan of 

 adulterating the wool, wdth materials sufficiently like it to make a 

 passable mixture, but not without its effects on the quality. To 

 overcome the possibility of this fraud the raw skins were purchased 

 directly by the hatters, who estimating the quantitj^ of wool rela- 

 tively by the weight of the entire pelt, naturally established this 

 method of dealing. Further there was an evident difficulty in de- 

 terming a basis of value for the "Coat Beaver" and "Mittain 

 Beaver " on any other plan. The average weight of beaver skins is 

 from a pound and a half to a pound and three quarters each. 



A change suddenly took place in 1760, when Canada was handed 

 over to British rule and the entire continent recognized the sov- 

 ereignty of the British Throne. A greedy rush, to gather the crop 



