The Zoologist— January, 1870. 1959 



thirty-four pounds. * * * * A good skin will weigh two and a 

 half pounds; but it is very rarely that one weighing that amount is 

 caught in Vancouver Island. The Hudson's Bay Company give only 

 from seventy-five to eighty-five cents per pound at Victoria for 

 peltries, so that a trapper now-a-days cannot get very fat at the 

 work." 



Mr. Brown says : — " In trapping, some strong-smelling stuff 

 (commonly castoreum in rum or cinnamon) is spread on the path. 

 The trap is then set in the water close to the bank, and covered with 

 about four inches of water. The beaver, attracted by the strong- 

 smelling substance, gives an approving slap of his tail, and starts off, 

 if anywhere in the neighbourhood, to investigate the booty, and as he 

 is leaving the water, gives a " purchase," so as to spring up the bank 

 on the very place where the trap is concealed. * * * * fhe 

 Opicheshaht (Indians) approach to leeward at night, and spear the 

 beaver from a canoe as he floats, eating a branch taken from the 

 shore ; or they shoot him when in shallow water, but not in deep 

 water, as he sinks on receiving the shot. They also block up the 

 opening into his house, break through the wall, and shoot or spear 

 him. * * * * When beaver [fur] was thirty shillings per 

 pound. Rocky Mountain beavers [skins of] were piled up on each 

 side of a trade gun until they were on a level with the muzzle, and 

 this was the price! The muskets cost in England some fifteen 

 shillings." 



The same rascally advantage was also taken of the Mic-Mac 

 Indians in Newfoundland, but such ill-gotten wealth has rarely 

 prospered among the settlers of that island. The following notes 

 on hunting and trapping the beaver were penned during my residence 

 in Newfoundland. This interesting animal may still be said to be 

 common in Newfoundland, although great numbers are annually 

 caught by the settlers, and even more by the Indians. The latter 

 live almost entirely by the produce of their beaver fur : one Indian 

 alone told me that he had caught and taken to St. John's, during the 

 previous year (1866) no less than two hundredweight of beaver fur. 

 As the Indians begin beaver-catching too early in the fall, before the 

 fur is of sufficient length or thickness, it must have taken at least two 

 hundred beavers to produce this weight of fur ! 



The Indians are great adepts in " drawing" beaver. This is done 

 by removing part of the stent, or dam, and concealing themselves 

 afterwards on the leeward side of the brook, near the house, or very 



