140 CASTOROLOGIA. 



an excursion as we have alreadj^ pictured, that each individual was 

 allowed to keep to himself all the beavers he dug out of the burrows; 

 all that were taken in the nets were divided among the whole com- 

 pany of men, the squaws kept any they killed in the lodges. 



The whole Iroquois family, whose various tribes occupied the 

 richest quarter of the continent, was as dependent on the beaver as 

 the prairie tribes were on the buffalo, and through all the early records 

 they are represented pre-eminently as the " Beaver Indians." It will 

 be remembered that the Hurons, a branch of the Iroquois tribe, who 

 occupied the shores of Lake Huron, were among those who claimed 

 descent from the great cosmic Beaver and used its effigy as their 

 totem. By referring to the map used in Chapter VI., to show the 

 former distribution of the beaver, it will be seen how extensive were 

 the ' ' Beaver reserves of the Iroquois ' ' and of ' ' The allies of the 

 French" — ^" Chasse de Castor des Iroquois;" " Chasse de Castor 

 des amis des Francois." The accompanying map from the " Docu- 

 mentary History of New York " is of special local interest, as it re- 

 calls the fact that where now populous settlements live in peaceful 

 husbandry, and where many a busy manufacturing town now stands, 

 not long since was the home of the beaver ; and that though not a 

 representative remains now in all the neighbourhood, the site was 

 once so thronged that the wisdom of the Indians selected it as a 

 " Beaver Hunting Country " — ''Pais dc Chasse de Castor y No more 

 interesting feature can be found in the whole study of the beaver 

 economy, than that afforded by the beaver hunting reserv^es. In 

 some cases in the interior of our country, near the height of land, 

 these hunting grounds are still recognized as the rightful property 

 of certain Indian families, and curiously, the line of descent is on 

 the mother's side, so that travellers relate how many an old de- 

 crepit squaw is honored and propitiated for favors from her beaver 

 reserve. These reserves were held with as much exclusiveness as a 

 freehold estate in England, and to trespass or to poach on them 

 meant to jeopardise one's life. The question of ownership involved 

 all the mystic relations of the social career of the Indian — genealo- 

 gies, tribal affinities, questions of caste and preference ; but also 

 rested greatly in the first instance on the right of might ; as their 



