136 CASTOROLOGIA. 



have made much headway against animals by virtue of his weapons 

 alone, and all writers agree that it was by stealth that he accom- 

 plished his purpose, whether in war or in peaceful adventures. We 

 are told that the Indian used to lie in wait for the beavers, as they 

 came from the water to their work in the woods, and by thus get- 

 ting within very close range, he was enabled to plunge his arrow 

 into the soft flank of the animal, and we can easily imagine that 

 this method of destruction was very slow. It is now difficult to be- 

 lieve that the "deadfall" was also used, but no doubt the Indian 

 contrived to make this trap a very perfect imitation of nature, or the 

 beaver could never have been attracted by it. The nature of the 

 beaver's food makes it difficult to select a bait, and as castoreum and 

 its attractive powers were not known to the Indians until long after 

 the arrival of the white man, we cannot suppose that this plan was 

 much more reliable than the arrow. These considerations, of course, 

 have reference to the seasons of the year when the waters were open 

 and vegetation more or less abundant, while an extensive variety of 

 fish and the flesh of game birds and animals made the tribes less de- 

 pendent on the beaver. When, however, the autumn came, and 

 passed rapidly into the severe winter experienced in nearly the 

 whole of the " Indian-Beaver" territory, when the little vegetation 

 that remained was shrouded under a deep covering of snow, when mi- 

 gratory birds, beasts and fishes had abandoned their former haunts, 

 then the Indian looked on the beaver colony as a providential ar- 

 rangement to supply his wants. A few tribes such as the Hochela- 

 gans, would gather their crop of Indian corn and then face the win- 

 ter with a feeling of confidence that must surely have aroused the 

 spirit of husbandrj' among their neighbors. Unfortunately, how- 

 ever, there were always predatory tribes, who on the swift snowshoe, 

 thought it better to steal supplies than to cultivate them, and conse- 

 quently, existence was never a matter removed from care in those 

 early days. The winter might be more severe than usual and pre- 

 vent foraging excursions, or it might start earlier and last longer 

 than usual, so that the proximity of the well stocked beaver colony 

 was a most important consideration. No wandering band of robbers 

 would care to plunder this, as the equipments they carried would 

 not have made it profitable to ri^k so much time in the woods, be- 



