166 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
It is not, however, for the delicacy of their flesh, but 
for the peculiar closeness of their soft and glossy fur 
that a war of extermination is carried on by man against 
these peaceful and innoxious beasts. That this fur was 
at an early period in great request for the manufacture 
of hats is proved by a proclamation issued in the year 
1638, by which it was forbidden to make use of any 
materials therein except Beaver stuff or Beaver wool. 
From this time the attention of the North American 
Indians has been incessantly directed towards these poor 
animals, and vast quantities have in consequence been 
destroyed every year. Of the numbers thus sacrificed, 
and of the importance of the trade, some idea may be 
formed by the amount of the sales at various places and 
at different periods. In 1 743, the Hudson's Bay Company 
alone sold 26,750 skins ; and 127,080 were imported 
into Rochelle. Upwards of 170,000 were exported from 
Canada in 1788; and Quebec alone in 1808 supplied 
this country with 126,927, which at the estimated 
average of eighteen shillings and nine pence per skin 
would produce no less a sum than £118,994. 
The skin of the young or Cub-Beaver is the most 
valuable, as being the darkest and the most glossy ; 
and the winter coat is far superior to the summer. The 
former seasqn is consequently preferred for taking them, 
and various means are adopted for the purpose. Some- 
times the ice is cut through both above and below their 
dwellings, nets are thrown across, and the devoted 
animals are driven from their shelter by the breaking 
down of their houses, and compelled to enter the nets. 
Sometimes a number of holes are made in the ice, and 
they are in like manner driven from their habitations ; 
when, as they are unable to remain under water for 
any long time, they rise to the surface where the ice is 
broken, and are easily secured. Under these circum- 
stances they will frequently take refuge in the holes in 
