144 CASTOROI.OGIA. 



closely staked across, a method called "trenching," whereby every 

 inhabitant of the colony was imprisoned from the first move, 

 and actual extermination alone satisfied the greed of the hunters. 

 Soon the vast country of the Iroquois was ruined, and then 

 the march northward and westward was pressed till the shores of 

 the Arctic and the Pacific stopped the hast}' rush ; ' ' the Iroquois, 

 once the careful husbander of the beaver, now became the most 

 inveterate hunter." 



In the manuscript of Mr. David Thompson, to which reference 

 has already been made, a very thoughtful survey of the position of 

 affairs shows that too much color cannot be given to the period of 

 1784-182 1, designated the period of Anglo-Canadian rivalries. 

 About the year 1794, the Indians of Canada and New Brunswick, 

 not satisfied with their achievements in beaver hunting, and obser\'- 

 ing the success of the white man in catching foxes, lynx, sables and 

 other animals with the steel trap, turned their attention to the pos- 

 sibility of eraplojnng this means to augment their store of beaver 

 skins. The one obstruction in the way was that no bait with suffi- 

 ciently attractive powers had yet been discovered, the vegetable diet 

 of the beaver and its constant and varied supply from the woods 

 about it, made the case difficult to meet. At first the traps were 

 placed under water in the run-ways of the beaver, the incipient 

 canal, but without luring the beavers to the spot. No very decided 

 advantage was thus gained, while the outlay for the steel traps and 

 the inconvenience of carrying the heavy outfit for miles through the 

 the woods, had certain disadvantages compared with the awkward 

 wooden trap, which cost nothing but a few moment's work on ma- 

 terial which everj'where was close at hand. 



Experiments were made, mixtures of various kinds were tried, 

 till at length it was found that those compounds into which ' ' cas- 

 toreum " had been introduced, filled more than the most ardent ex- 

 pectations, and what "fire-water" was to the Indian, so these cas- 

 toreuni mixtures were to the beavers. Their infatuation was with- 

 out bounds, and the results which followed cannot be more graphic- 

 ally told than in Mr. Thompson's own words : — 



