U70 Mil. u. lmo\v^' on tiijs heaver. 



England some 15*. These were the days of the " free trapi)er " 

 — ijoyous, brave, generous, and reckless — the hero of romance, 

 round whom many a tale of daring circles, the love of the Indian 

 damsel, the beau ideal of a man, in the eyes of the half-breed, whose 

 ambition never rose higher than a coureur de hois — a class of men 

 who, with all their failings, we cannot but be sorry to see disappear- 

 ing from the fur-countries. The fall of Beavers' peltry rang their 

 death-knell; and, as a separate profession, trapping is almost 

 extinct, being nearly altogether followed, at uncertain spells, by 

 the Indians and the lower class of half-breeds. The world is fast 

 filling in ; the emigrant, with his bullock-team and his plough, 

 is fast destroying all the romance of the far West — ifast filling up 

 with the stern prose of the plough and the reaping-machine and 

 the whistle of steam what was once only claimed by the pleasant 

 poetry of the songs of the voyageur, the coureur des hois — the 

 hunters and trappers of the great fur companies ! But perhaps 

 it is better after all ! 



The beaver is easily domesticated, and learns to eat any vege- 

 table matter, but requires water occasionally. One kept at Port 

 M'Leod got blind ; but if it got access to water, it laved some on 

 its eyes, and generally in an hour quite recovered its sight. It 

 used to gather carpenter's shavings together, and carry them to 

 the door; if the door was shut, it forced them up against it, 

 finishing with a slap of its tail, as if it were building a dam. It 

 had a great antipathy to the Indians. It would come into the 

 Indian Hall, where the natives were seated, as is their wont, back 

 to the wall. It would first take their fire-bag, then their axe, and 

 so on until it had carried everything to the door, greatly to the 

 amusement of the Indians. It would then attempt vigorously to 

 eject the owner of the articles. Its "weakness" for gnawing 

 exhibited itself in a very unpleasant manner ; for occasionally, in 

 the morning, the whole of the furniture was prostrate, the beaver 

 having gnawed through the legs of the tables and chairs 1 



This leads me to remark that the beaver might be easily natu- 

 ralized again in Britain ; and though I cannot recommend them in 

 the light of a drawing-room pet, yet I can conceive no more plea- 

 sant inhabitant of our lakes and rivers*. We must remember 

 that at one time the beaver was an inhabitant of these islands, 

 but became early extinct. This was, of course, not the Castor 

 Canadensis, but the C. fiber, Linn. ; for the remains found in 



* Vide ' Fnrmor,' April 18G8. 



