386 EARLY NOTICES OF THE BEAVER. 



convenient medieval creed, wliiGh converted the amphibious rodent 

 into a suitable lenten dish, when flesh was forbidden, no doubt added 

 to the zeal with which the beaver hunt was pursued, and contributed 

 to hasten its extinction, as it is likely to do in our own Canadian 

 province, where the luxurious bon bouche of beaver's tail is recognised 

 and sanctioned by the supreme ecclesiastical authorities of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, as maigre, or Lenten fare. On this part of the sub- 

 ject I am informed, on the authority of one of the resident clergy of 

 Lower Canada, that according to the discipline of the Roman Catholic 

 Church the flesh of all amphibious animals is classed in the same cate- 

 gory with that of fishes, and as such is allowed to be eaten during Lent 

 and on other days of abstinence from flesh-meat. In this way the 

 flesh of tortoises, frogs, and seals is considered to be meagre, and even 

 certain wild ducks, more than ordinarily aquatic in their habits, enjoy 

 the same distinction. 



After the discovery of Canada, the Jesuit Missionaries demanded of 

 the Holy See, whether the beaver might not be ranged in the same 

 category, and from the descriptions sent home by the Reverend Fathers, 

 the beaver was regarded as amphibious, and as such, allowed to be 

 eaten as meagre diet. 



It is not the tail only, so far as I can learn, but the whole of the 

 carcase which is maigre ; though on this point I have received contra- 

 dictory opinions. The musk-rat is also meagre food, but not tt© 

 otter ; a distinction which, in, the. absence of any assigned reason seci^as 

 ..singularly arbitrary. References to the beaver frequently occur in 

 the journals of the French Missionaries of the seventeenth and eigh 

 rteenth centuries, but in very many respects these earlier descriptions 

 of this animal are very incorrect, and mingled with fable. A curions 

 and elaborate memoir upon the subject, prepared by Michel Sarra^ip, 

 is to be found in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. 



This source of the continued estimation of the beaver, apart fromi^s 

 fur or castoreum, whereby it contributes some variety to the canonical 

 fast-day dietetics by right of its aquatic habits ; and in virtue of which, 

 its tail — ^though so rich as to tax the skill of the cook in its preparation 

 for the table, — is authoratatively prescribed as meagre diet : is no 

 modern novelty of the Canadian church. Dr. Charles Wilson notes 

 various proofs of the value attached to the beayer, especially by eccle- 

 siastics, in ancient times, on account of its having furnished an 

 agreeable variety to the fare prescribed for their fasts and self-denyiijg 

 observances. 



