CASTOROLOGIA. 39 



than brownish. No difference in other respects is discernible and 

 though apparently local and said to be found more plentifully at 

 Churchill, Hudson's Bay, than at any other point, these specimens 

 can scarcely constitute a constant variety. 



Next in order comes the spotted beaver — variety " varia," 

 which Dr. Richardson considered more rare than the preceding, but 

 this might be perhaps based on his personal observation which could 

 not, necessarily, have been very extensive. He reports that he 

 never met with a specimen, which seems rather remarkable as 

 the white spotted beavers are not unfrequently met with even 

 now, among Hudson's Bay beavers ; although having no special 

 beauty there does not exist the same demand, which tempts the 

 capture of the black beaver, whose pelt always fetches a high price. 

 The variety ' ' varia ' ' is doubtless a ' ' sport ' ' inclining to albinism, 

 the white spots generally occur on the throat or along the sides, but 

 all other characteristics correspond exactly with the normal type. 



The white beaver — variety, "alba," is incomparably the rarest, 

 though it is evidently nothing but an albino condition of the type 

 Castor Canadensis. The Indians attach much value to these rare 

 skins, which the lucky hunter converts into a medicine bag, and 

 although this fate befalls albino skins of many other animals, such 

 as the otter, the skunk and the musquash, those of the beaver seem 

 to be held in more than ordinary esteem by the Indians, owing per- 

 haps to their extreme rarity. Samuel Hearne saw but one in the 

 course of twenty years, though Prince Maximillian, in 1843, speak- 

 ing of beavers found upon the Yellowstone River says, ' ' Yellowish- 

 white and pure white are not unfrequently caught on the Yellow- 

 stone." About twenty years ago, Mr. Harrison Young, of Montreal, 

 then connected with the Geological Survey of Canada, while travel- 

 ling in the neighbourhood of I^ittle Slave l,ake, secured nine pure 

 white beaver skins in one parcel. The occurrence, though without 

 parallel in Natural History records, suggests the possibility of per- 

 petuating a race of white beavers, for the discovery of so large a 

 number in one locality would scarcely indicate an ordinary freak of 

 nature, but rather implies hereditary qualities. 



