MAMMALS OF NOETHEEN CANADA 253 



lar bark, green willows, birch, and other deciduous leaves. 

 The male assists in providing food for the young in the 

 earlier stage of their existence. When necessary, this intelli- 

 gent animal erects new, and always renovates old, lodges and 

 dams in the autumn. One or two kindred families frequently 

 live together, and their progeny continue for upward of two 

 years with their parents, after which they are usually ex- 

 pected to mate and provide for themselves. The males often 

 fight fiercely during the rutting season. It is not an uncom- 

 mon experience for hunters to find one or more beavers dead 

 of disease in their houses or " washes." Such animals are 

 seldom other than in good condition, but the Indians will 

 not eat the meat except, they be verging on starvation. In 

 this connection, Mr. G. Deschambeault vTrites that " when 

 beaver are found dead in their ' wash ' they are generally 

 (mouth and nostrils) infested by numerous small white 

 worms. Low water also causes the death of beaver some 

 winters in their lodges." Some old veteran males become 

 very large and heavy. The flesh of the beaver, except when 

 very lean, is very palatable and easy of digestion, and is 

 much relished by the natives and northern resident whites 

 who have partaken thereof. 



If let alone, or not much disturbed by hunting, the beaver 

 will rapidly increase in mimbers. In proof of this statement, 

 I woidd mention that many extensive tracts of country in 

 which they had become scarce or had wholly or almost 

 entirely disappeared (as a result of the keen and very costly 

 rivalry in trade which had for many years existed between 

 the ISTorth-West Company of Montreal and the Hudson's 

 Bay Company of England, previous to their coalition in 

 1821, it was uncertain for some time " which of them lost 

 most money — ^neither of them gained money," while the 

 general demoralization of Indians and whites was very 

 lamentable) they afterwards recovered under the fostering 

 policy of protection promptly inaugurated and intelligently 

 pursued by the now united Fur Trading and Governing Cor- 



