AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



29 



AUTHENTIC HISTORY— Continued. 



FICTITIOUS HISTORY— Continued. 



I never saw but one white beaver-skin, and it had many- 

 reddish and brown hairs along the ridge of the back, and 

 the sides and belly were of a glossy silvery white. It 

 was deemed by the Indians a great curiosity; and I offered 

 three times the usual price for a few of them, if they 

 could be got; but in the course of ten years that I re- 

 mained there afterward, I could not procure another; 

 which is a convincing proof there is no such thing as a 

 breed of that kind, and that a variation from the usual 

 colour is very rare. 



" Black Beaver, and that of a beautiful gloss, are not 

 uncommon: perhaps they are more plentiful at Churchill 

 than at any other Factory in the Bay; but it is rare to get 

 more than twelve or fifteen of their skins in the course of 

 one year's trade. 



" Lefranc, as an Indian, must have known better than 

 to have informed Mr. Dobbs that the Beaver have from ten 

 to fifteen young at a time; or if he did, he must have 

 deceived him wilfully: for the Indians, by killing them 

 in all stages of gestation, have abundant opportunities of 

 ascertaining the usual number of their offspring. I have 

 seen some hundreds of them killed at the seasons favour- 

 ble for those observations, and never could discover more 

 than six young in one female, and that only in two in- 

 stances; for the usual number, as I have before observed, 

 is from two to five. 



"Besides this unerring method of ascertaining the real 

 number of young which any animal has at a time, there 

 is another rule to go by, with respect to the Beaver, which 

 experience has proved to the Indians never to vary or de- 

 ceive them, that is by dissection; for on examining the 

 womb of a beaver, even at a time when not with young, 

 there is always found a hardish round knob for every young 

 she had at the last litter. This is a circumstance I have 

 been particularly careful to examine, and can affirm it to 

 be true, from real experience. 



" Most of the accounts, nay, I may say all the accounts 

 now extant, respecting the Beaver, are taken from the 

 authority of the French who have resided in Canada; but 

 those accounts differ so much from the real state and ceco- 

 nomy of all the Beaver to the north of that place, as to 

 leave great room to suspect the truth of them altogether. 

 In the first place, the assertion that they have two doors 

 to their houses, one on the land side, and the other next the 

 water, is, as I have before observed, quite contrary to fact 

 and common sense, as it would render their houses of no 

 use to them, either as places of shelter from the incle- 

 mency of the extreme cold in winter, or as a retreat from 

 their common enemy the quiquehatch. The only thing 



H 



" Great Hare, at Bloody Lake, confidently assured me 

 that, on reaching the spot where two tribes of Beavers 

 had just been engaged in battle with each other, he had 

 found upon the field fifteen, dead or dying; and other 

 Indians, both Sioux and Cypowais, have equally declared 

 that they have occasionally obtained capital prizes on the 

 like occasions. It is perfectly correct that they are some- 

 times taken without a tail. I have seen one in that state 

 myself, which corroborates the history of the punishment 

 inflicted by them on obstinate offenders. In short, these 

 animals are deemed so very extraordinary, even by In- 

 dians, that they consider them as men metamorphosed 

 into Beavers; and killing them is regarded as conferring 

 upon them a very essential service, as it is conceived to 

 be a restoration of them to their original state of being. 

 Here, again, my clear Countess, is a puzzle for those who 

 are desirous of compacting the religion of these tribes into 

 a system!" — Beltrami.* 



" Itoftentimes happens that asingle Beaver lives retired, 

 and it is then styled by furriers, a hermit; they say it is turn- 

 ed out from the family because it is lazy and will not 

 work. All hermit Beavers have a black mark on the in- 

 side of the skin upon their backs, called a saddle, which 

 distinguishes them. Fidelity is supposed to cause her- 

 mit Beavers, as they are very faithful creatures to their 

 mate; and by some accident or other losing that mate, 

 they either will not pair again, or remain single until they 

 can find another hermit of the contrary sex; and that the 

 saddle proceeds from the want of a partner to keep their 

 back warm!" — A Story of the Hunters. 

 (Concluded.) 



* This author, who styles himself " J. C. Beltrami, Esq. formerly Judge 

 of a Royal Court in the Ex-kingdom of Italy," is what may truly be called a 

 " romancing traveller," who, after making a tour through several kingdoms of 

 Europe, came to America, and, as he says, discovered the sources of the 

 Mississippi!!! 



This looks very much like the affair of those Dutch navigators, who, 

 some time since, were exulting because they had discovered some new 

 islands in the Pacific, — and, after having christened them — went home re- 

 joicing to their master, the king, with the glad tidings. It however turned 

 out afterwards, that these islands had been known and visited, many years 

 before, by some Yankee whale ships. 



But Beltrami wrote his work entirely for the ladies of Italy, to whom he 

 dedicated it, through a favourite Italian Countess, and therefore had to 

 make out some marvellous tales. But the best of the joke is, that this 

 author was not only most inquisitive, but credulous of every thing re- 

 lated to him; and his notice of the Beaver, which is inserted above, was 

 told with great gravity to the above author, by an officer of the 

 United States army, and some Indian hunters, merely to see how much he 

 could swallow ! This took place in the camp at Council Bluffs, under Ma- 

 jor Long's expedition, which place Beltrami often visited, while he travel- 



