1 68 CASTOROI.OGIA. 



The truth concerning the thin idle wanderers who soon die, is most 

 likely that they are cases of sickness or disease, which would also 

 account for the poor condition of the fur and might perhaps explain 

 the mysterious "saddle." In the appendix to this volume an ac- 

 count is given of the parasite which infests the beaver, — Platypsyllus 

 castoris — and as it is generally found that animals seriously affected 

 by parasites become thin and sometimes sicken and die, and that 

 animals in captivity are more subject to the attacks of vermin than 

 when in their native condition, it is possible that Mr. Black's " idle 

 beavers" were in too unhealthy a condition to care for work. In 

 1887, the keeper explained that when a beaver was seen swimming 

 about much in the daytime its dead bod}- was soon looked for, as 

 the}' seldom moved about during the day unless they were sickly. 



The great difference between these attempts of the white man to 

 perpetuate the beaver and the method adopted bj- the Indian is all 

 the difference between art and nature. The white man has made 

 artificial enclosures for the beaver ; the Indian reserve was a natural 

 beaver district, chosen by the animals as a suitable home and 

 guarded by the Indian from encroachment. Of the regard which 

 beavers had for certain localities Charlevoix says, " There are some 

 places that the beavers seem to have such an affection for that they 

 do not appear able to leave them, although they are always uneasy 

 there. On the way from Montreal to L,ake Huron by the great river, 

 one nev^er fails to find every j'ear at the same place a lodge which 

 these animals build or repair every summer ; for the first thing the 

 voyageurs do who arrive there earliest, is to break the lodge and the 

 dam which provides it with water. ' ' 



The Hudson's Bay Company showed their wisdom by adopting 

 the Indian methods of dealing with nature, and in proportion to the 

 closeness with which the}' follow these methods so is the measure of 

 their success. They have systematically set aside certain islands 

 along the coast of Hudson's Bay as beaver reser\'es, those favored 

 most by the beaver being chosen. We have seen how every third 

 year a family of beaver kittens matures, and the Company considers 

 it wise to visit these islands everv third vear and carefullv gather 



