396 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



of New Netherland furnished to the fur trade in 16 71 " full eighty thousand 

 beavers a year," the number living in the area included by New York 

 State at the time of Champlain's visit must have been enormous — not 

 improbably several millions. 



All the evidences show that the beaver was fully as abundant in the 

 Adirondacks as in other parts of the State; so that if, dividing by three, 

 we make the assumption that there were one million beavers in the Adi- 

 rondacks at the commencement of the white man's settlement, we have 

 an estimate probably as accurate as could be deduced at the present time. 

 Judging from the extensive remains of the beavers' occupancy, still visible 

 in all parts of Northern New York (such as beaver meadows and remnants 

 of dams), it is evident that every lake and pond was occupied, and every 

 river, brook and rill, from the largest to the most insignificant, thickly 

 peopled with these industrious and prolific animals. They seem to have 

 completely possessed the land, and to have been abundant almost beyond 

 our present conception. 



The Indian did not especially value the beaver, and it was not then — 

 as it soon after became — the principal object of his pursuit. Beaver fur 

 was used occasionally as covering and for ornamentation, and the hides 

 were sometimes made into moccasins, but the beaver pelt was never in 

 superior demand among them. The flesh of the beaver was highly prized 

 by almost all of the North American tribes ; but as the Indian is essentially 

 omniverous,* and moreover was exceedingly careful not to waste animal 

 life, it could not be said that he ever made serious inroads upon the beaver 

 colonies for the purpose of sustaining life. Indeed, the Indian and the 

 beaver seem to have lived, on the whole, peaceably together in the same 

 wilderness, and there are many records to show that beaver colonies were 



* In addition to the deer, moose, wapiti, raccoon, hare, rabbit, duck, goose, grouse, and other 

 wild game prized so highly by the white settlers of this continent, the Indian killed, ate and relished 

 the bear, porcupine, muskrat, skunk, woodchuck, squirrel, wood mouse and many other animals 

 deemed unfit or unsavory by most of his successors. They were very fond of the flesh of dogs; and 

 some of the western tribes even carry the eating of grasshoppers to injurious excess. Wild fowl 

 and birds of all kinds, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and mollusks, fruits of many varieties, cereals and 

 grains, vegetables (wild and cultivated), roots, shrubs, wild plants and grasses, and even the bark 

 of trees, all contributed towards sustaining the life of the primitive wild Indian. 



