APPENDIX. 231 



be got ; but in the course of ten years that I remained there after- 

 wards, 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 color 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 Fac- 

 tory 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 in- 

 formed 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 for ascertaining the usual number of their offspring. 

 I have seen some hundreds of them killed at the seasons favourable 

 for those observations, and never could discover more than six young 

 in one female, and that only in two instances ; 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 deceive 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 par- 

 ticularly 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 oeconomy of all the beaver to the North of 

 that place, as to leave great room to suspect the truth of them alto- 

 gether. 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, 



