CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER V. RODENTIA. 
387 
and West at the present time, their peltry being chiefly collected by the agents of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. 
In Europe, the beaver-skin was used for clothing as far back as the age of Herodotus. The 
existence of the beaver in England is indicated as early as the time of Alfred the Great, who speaks 
in his writings of its curious building instincts. In 1638, Charles 1. issued a proclamation pro- 
hibiting the use of any materials except beaver-stuff or heaver-toool in the manufacture of hats, 
and forbidding the making of the hats called demi-castors, unless for exportation. This procla- 
mation was an almost exterminating^ death-warrant to the beavers in the American Colonies. 
They were speedily swept away from the more southern ones, and the traffic became for the most 
part confined to Canada and Hudson's Bay. From this time the imports into Europe appear to 
have varied from 100,000 to 150,000 skins a year. London became the great market for these 
furs, and the average importations from 1783 to 1840 were about 140,000. The annual con- 
sumption of the whole world probably did not exceed 150, 000.'* 
* Statistics of t-'ie Fuu Trade. — Since the above was written, we have taken some pains to collect facts on this 
subject, and by the kindness of one of the leading American houses in Kew York connected with this business, with 
other opportunities, we are able to ofi'er the following interesting facts : 
IMPORTATIOlsr OF FURS OF THE HUDSOn's BAT COMPANT IN 1858, AND OFFERED FOR SALE 
IN LONDON IN JANUARY AND MARCH, 1859. 
Kinds, 
of skins. 
No. of 
skins. 
Total 
185S. 
Total 
1857. 
Total 
1856. 
Value in 
1869. 
Kinds, 
of skins. 
No. of 
skins. 
Total 
1S5S. 
Total 
1857. 
Total 
1S56. 
Value in 
1S59. 
£ 
o ^^ 
^ o 
rr-, 
-^^ 12 
O o 
a> 
a 
72,241 
1,285 
3,566 
5,168 
894 
3,307 
10,295 
1,542 
5,546 
28,102 
67,644 
1,090 
3,199 
4,886 
826 
2,718 
8,851 
2,158 
9,811 
26,794 
61,789 
785 
3,796 
4,885 
780 
2,637 
9,644 
8,354 
6,668 
18,907 
51 25 per lb. 
0 60 each. 
7 00 each. 
6 00 each. 
25 00 each. 
7 00 each. 
1 25 each. 
0 60 each. 
0 35 each. 
2 40 each. 
Martin 
3 
>■ 
a3 
s § 
O fci 
■<-' p 
o 
t3 " 
-is 3 
a o 
'o 
O 
108,752 
40,836 
219.829 
9,968 
54,516 
8,460 
829 
12,007 
697 
110,848 
4S,S1S 
290,112 
9,822 
60,929 
8,124 
775 
6,789 
648 
144,235 
40,368 
280,517 
8,958 
70,626 
§2 50 each. 
1 27 each. 
0 14 each. 
4 50 each. 
3 a 4c. each. 
1 50 each. 
0 25 each. 
1 50 each. 
2 00 each. 
Badger 
Fisher 
Mink 
Musquash. . . 
Otter 
Fox — Silver. 
" Cross.. 
" Red.... 
" White. 
" Kitt... 
Skunk 
Swan skins. . 
Wolf 
Wolverine . . 
8,720 
617 
This does not embrace the Columbia River importation, which includes about 18,000 beaver-skins annually ; and 
of the other kinds, about fifteen per cent, on the preceding numbers. 
On the 26th of January, 1859, C. M. Lampson & Co., an American house in London, offered for sale 10,000 beaver- 
skins and 850,000 musquash skins, and in March, the following : 
200,000 Raccoon-skins. 5,000 Mink-skins. 10,000 Red Fox-skins. 
200 Cross and Silver Fox-skins. 2,000 Martin-skins. 1,000 Otter-skins. 
1,000 Lynx-skins. 1,000 Bear-skins. 700 Fisher-skins. 
1,000 Skunk-skins. 10,000 Opossum-skins. 
This is a half-yearly sale, so that the numbers must be doubled. These tables furnish the elements of a calculation 
of the furs of the above kinds, annually imported into London from America, for these two concerns engross the 
entire trade. To these must be added the furs retained in the United States for consumption there. The amotmt 
of the European and Asiatic furs of these kinds is trifling in comparison with the preceding amounts. 
The whole number of beaver-skins annually produced can thus be pretty accurately ascertained. The importation 
of the Hudson's Bay Company alone, for 1858, is 72,241 skins ; for Columbia River, 18,000 ; Lampson & Co. sell 20,000 ; 
retained for use in the United States, 5,000 ; and the Russian America skins sent to the United States and used there, 
4,000. Thus we have 119,241 beaver-skins as the product of Xorth America for the year 1858. This exceeds the 
average ; the product throughout the world may be one hundred thousand skins annually. Owing to the substitu- 
tion, for the manufacture of hats, of silk and ^S'utria fur — the skins of this animal selling at forty cents the pound, (see 
page 408,) — the demand for beaver has greatly diminished within the last ten years, and the present annual product 
is but about two-thirds what it was formerly. The price was $7 a pound in 1832, in 1844 $4 50; it is now §1 25. 
This reduction of value has abated the zeal with which these animals have been pursued, and it is a curious fact that 
in some localities, especially in British America, they are actually on the increase. Within the United States, 
the Indians, having ceded their lands to the government, and receiving annual stipends from the same, have 
greatly relaxed their energy and enterprise in hunting and trapping ; but the extending settlements of the whites 
have even more than supplied their place, as the white man pursues wild animals from the spirit of the chase, with- 
out exclusive regard to the money profits they may yield. The beaver territory is much more contracted than it was. 
Twenty years ago Kansas and Nebraska produced a considerable amount of beavers ; at present their yield is 
trifling. In 1830 the Lake Superior Indians annually procured furs to the value of |150,000 ; now the annual product 
of the same region is not more than one-fifth of that value. All things considered, we think the beaver at the pres- 
ent time is actually diminishing, though, as we have said, in certain places it may be on the increase. It must 
be remembered that about 100,000 are annually killed, almost wholly in North America, and that in a territory very 
much contracted from what it was half a century ago, when the annual product was 150,000. 
The musquash-skins are chiefly supplied from the U. S. ; Lampson & Co.'s sales are about a million a year. 
