CASTOROLOGIA. I45 



' ' The secret of this bait was soon spread ; every Indian procured 

 from the trader four to six steel traps, the weight of one was about 

 six to eight pounds ; all labour was now at an end, the hunter 

 moved about at pleasure, with his traps and infallible bait of castor- 

 eum. Of the infatuation of this animal for castoreum, I saw several 

 instances. A trap was negligently fastened by its small chain to 

 the stake, to prevent the beaver taking away the trap when caught ; 

 it slipped and the beaver swam away with the trap, and it was looked 

 upon as lost. Two nights after he was taken in a trap, with the 

 other trap fast to his thigh. Another time, a beaver passing over a 

 trap to get the castoreum, had his hind leg broken, with his teeth he 

 cut the broken leg off, and went away. We concluded he would 

 not come again, but two nights afterwards, he was found fast in a 

 trap ; in every case tempted by the castoreum. The stick was al- 

 ways licked or sucked clean, and it seemed to act as a soporific, as 

 they remained more than a da}- without coming out of their houses. 

 The Nepissings, the Algonquins and Iroquois Indians, having ex- 

 hausted their own districts, now spread themselves over these coun- 

 tries and as they destroyed, the beaver moved forward to the north- 

 ward and westward. The natives, the Napataways did not in the 

 least molest them ; the Chippeways and other tribes made use of 

 traps of steel, and of the castoreum. For several years all those 

 Indians were rich, the women and children, as well as the men were 

 covered with silver brooches, ear-rings, wampum, beads and other 

 trinkets. Their mantles were of fine scarlet cloth, and all was finery 

 and dress. The canoes of the fur trader were loaded with packs of 

 beaver, till the abundance of the article lowered the London prices. 

 Every intelligent man saw the povertj^ that would follow the de- 

 struction of the beaver, but there were no chiefs to control it ; always 

 perfect liberty and equality. Four years after almost the whole of 

 these extensive countries became poor, and with difficult}^ procured 

 the first necessaries of life, and in this state they remain, and pro- 

 bably for ever. A worn out field may be manured and again made 

 fertile ; but the beaver once destroj-ed cannot be replaced. They 

 were the gold coin of the country, with which the necessaries of life 

 were purchased." 



While the country was being impoverished in this wa}^ the pro- 



