TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
383 
many parts of the coast, the Phoca vitellina , Common Hair 
Seal, is abundant, and follows the track of the salmon. 
Castor Fiber , The Beaver, and Fiber zibethicus, The Musk 
Rat, are common in some parts of the country ; and the former 
is numerous at the mouths of the Sacramento and San Joaquim 
rivers. The beaver is well known to naturalists, for the re¬ 
markable skill and industry which it exhibits in the construc¬ 
tion of its habitation, and the general sagacity and intelli¬ 
gence of its character. For this reason, as well as on account 
of the value of its skin as an article of commerce, and the 
employment which its capture affords to many enterprising 
and bold men, some account of its haunts, and of the means 
used in obtaining it for purposes of trade, may not be uninte¬ 
resting. Near and about the mouth of the Sacramento, as 
before observed, lies a wide extent of low land overflowed by 
the tide, and including some hundreds of small islands, cov¬ 
ered with an enormous growth of rushes. There is probably 
no spot of equal extent on the whole continent of America, 
which contains so many of these much sought for animals. 
For the last fifteen years the Hudson’s Bay Company have 
annually sent hither a company of from fifty to one hundred 
trappers, who have each year taken from this spot alone from 
five to ten thousand of these valuable skins. It is said by 
hunters well acquainted with the whole Rocky Mountain 
region, that they have never seen anywhere else such large 
and fat beavers. On account of the scarcity of the timber of 
which their huts are generally constructed, the beavers, like 
true philosophers, have here accommodated themselves to 
circumstances, and build their habitations of rushes, curiously 
and skilfully interwoven. Notwithstanding the immense con¬ 
scription drawn from their families by the hunters, their num¬ 
bers as yet do not sensibly diminish. The very large size of 
the skins obtained from this place, causes their value to be 
greatly enhanced. The probable worth of each skin after it 
is prepared by the hunters for exportation, is about three do* 
