BEAVER AND CANADIAN HISTORY 189 
Huron, it was said that “a hundred canoes used to 
come to trade, all laden with beaver skins and each 
year we had two or three hundred thousand livres 
worth. That was a fine revenue with which to 
satisfy all the people and defray the heavy expenses 
of the country,” and this in spite of the fact that 
the Iroquois did all they could to prevent the trade 
by incessant attacks on all who either trapped or 
carried the skins. In the above-mentioned year 
there is the following statement: “The country is 
not stripped of beaver; they form its gold mines 
and its wealth, which have only to be drawn upon 
in the lakes and streams, where the supply is great 
in proportion to the smallness of the draught upon 
it during these latter years due to the fear of being 
dispersed or captured by the Iroquois.” During 
the earlier years, the whites contented themselves 
with trading for skins, but gradually the desire for 
greater profits led them to indulge in trapping, 
and in 1656 I find almost the first notice of this in 
the following: “As nothing happened all winter 
long to mar our joy and as the atmosphere of peace 
had spread throughout the country especially in 
Montreal, the great number of beaver inhabiting 
the streams and neighbouring rivers attracted our 
Frenchmen thither as spring opened and the snow 
and ice melted. On all sides they hunted and 
waged war against these animals in good earnest, 
with pleasure and profit alike. A young surgeon 
in pursuit of his prey—laying his snares for the 
