CASTOROLOGIA. I47 



is illustrated in Chapter X., being that carried by the old "Trapper 

 and Trader. ' ' 



In 1814, a letter from a North-Wester at the Mackenzie River 

 Department, Great Slave I^ake, which appears in I,. R. Masson's 

 " I^es Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest," contains the in- 

 formation that ' ' the Indians complain at the want of beaver, (the 

 Iroquois having ruined the country,)" and in a note the author 

 explains that the North-Westers often took up the Iroquois as 

 hunters, and ' ' these Indians having no interest in the country, 

 hunted recklessly and at all seasons. The cry of ' no beaver ' is the 

 only ground for reducing the number of posts on Peace River, and 

 relinquishing the whole department of McKenzie's River." 



Having thus shown the artificial destruction of the beaver, it 

 might be well, at this, point, to refer to some of the natural enemies 

 which helped to thin their colonies ; and among these none have at- 

 tained such notoriety as the wolverine {gulo luscus). From the days 

 of Olaus Magnus, the " gulus " — or glutton — as it was then named, 

 has been the object of most damning superstitions, and even to-day 

 the animal is most popularly known as the "glutton." The Hud- 

 son's Bay traders called it the " quick hatch," and the French tra- 

 ders used the corruption "carcajou," both titles having a long list of 

 variations and both supposed to have arisen from the same source, 

 the Indian name " quickwahay, " which, in J. I,ong's valuable In- 

 dian vocabulary, published in 1791, is translated as the "beaver 

 eater." The animal furnishes many interesting features for study, 

 and, on better acquaintance, proves itself by no means deserving of 

 the unenviable notoriety it has achieved, though all the French tra- 

 ders held it so much in disrepute as to call it ' ' enfant du diable ' ' — 

 "child of the devil." It was only the size of the adult beaver 

 but proportionately very powerful, and possessed of that blood- 

 thirsty appetite which distinguishes the weasels, ferrets, and all the 

 representatives of this family. Consequently the defenceless beaver 

 was a rich source of supply, and by lying in wait in the woods, or 

 assaulting the lodges, doubtless many a victim was secured, and 

 though the stories concerning the ravages are usually supposed to be 



