146 



CASTOROLOGIA. 



fits made by the traders were so great that it was reasonably de- 

 clared that some of the most colossal fortunes of England, France and 

 America, were founded on the beaver traffic. Mr. Fred. W. Lucas 

 in his " Shreds of History-, " which gives minute details of this period, 

 after quoting the schedule of barter in beaver skins, says, ' ' these 

 prices are reckoned to have yielded a profit of 2,000 per cent." 



The castoreum bait has never been superseded by any other, and 

 every trapper who now attempts to capture the beaver is provided 

 with his bottle of "medicine," as it is called, which consists of a 

 vegetable mixture varying with the fancy of the individual, but in- 

 variably depending for its merit on the magic power of castoreum. 



BEAVER TRAP, WITH CI^UTCH. 



At great variance with the former wise method of allowing suffi- 

 cient beavers to remain in a neighborhood to perpetuate the race, is 

 the advice given in a "Trapper's Guide," published recently in 

 New York, in which the author says : — "A full grown family of 

 beavers, as I have said before, consists of the parents (male and 

 female), their three year old offspring, the two year olds, and the 

 yearlings — four generations of four different sizes — occupying one 

 hut, and doing business in one pond. When a trapper comes on 

 such a pond, or one that he has reason to believe is inhabited by a 

 large number of beavers, his object should be to take them all." 

 This same writer offers a steel trap armed with a powerful ' ' clutch," 

 designed specially to. hold the beaver's body, and prevent it tearing 

 the feet from the trap ; for the legs are so short that the beaver fre- 

 quently manages to escape. The ordinary style of the beaver trap 



