39§ REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



and the slaughter, thus inaugurated, never ceased while there were beavers 

 enough in any part of the Adirondacks to make systematic trapping worth 

 while. As a rule, the pelts taken by the Algonquin and white hunters in 

 the northern part of the wilderness eventually reached France, through 

 Montreal, while those taken in the southern part by the Iroquois, Dutch 

 and English, found their way, via Fort Orange (Albany) and New Amster- 

 dam, to Holland or England. 



TI)e Reaver Mat; Earl^ ^laaglyfer 



The beaver hat was now established as an article of fashion throughout 

 Europe and America, and so highly was it prized that we find, in 1663, as 

 much as £4. 55 was paid for a good beaver hat. Previously Northern Asia 

 had been the chief source of supply, but America soon took the lead and 

 has held it ever since. 



From the establishment of the French and Dutch trading posts on 

 both sides of the Adirondacks early in the seventeenth century, until the 

 beginning of the nineteenth, — almost two hundred years, — the pursuit 

 of the beaver continued without any abatement. The numbers that were 

 annually killed are almost past belief. The Fludson Bay Company alone, 

 in a single year, exported 175,000 skins,* many of which undoubtedly came 

 from the Adirondacks, while it has been shown above that the annual 

 exportation from the colony of New York reached or exceeded 80,000. 

 As earty as 1623 the importance of the beaver to the Dutch colony was 

 so well recognized as to lead to its incorporation in the seal of New 

 Netherland. 



An idea of the excessive destruction which was carried on may be 

 gained from the following statement by Martin : ' The annual returns 

 from Prince of Wales Fort alone reached 20,000 beaver skins, and though 

 at that time the exports [from Canada] included a long list of valuable 

 articles, the quantity of beaver skins represented two-thirds of the entire 

 value. A most extraordinary crisis was reached in the year 1700; for some 

 time prior to this, the collection of beavers had been so excessive as to 

 partly glut the market, but in the year mentioned, the number of beaver 



* Vid. Castoroloeia. 



