'BEAVER, 
white. The fkins are a prodigious article of trade, j > 
being the foundation of the hat manufactory. In 
1763 were fold, in a fmgle fale of the Hudfon's Bay 
Company, 54,670 Ildus. They are difling uifhed 
by different names. Coat Beaver Is what has been 
worn as coverlets by the Indians . Parchment Beaver 9 
becaufe the lower fide refembles it. Stage Beaver is 
the worft, and is that which the Indians kill out of 
feafon, on their flages or journies. The valuable 
drug Caftoreum * is taken from the inguinal glands 
of thefe animals. The antients had a notion it was 
lodged in the teflicles, and that the animal, when 
hard preffed, would bite them off, and leave them 
to its purfuers, as if confcious of what they wanted, 
to deflroy him for. 
Imitatus Caftora, qui fe 
Eunuchum ipfe facit, cupiens evadere damno 
Hefiiculorum . Juvenal, xii. 34. 
* The Ruffian Caftoreum is fo much better than the American , that 
we give two guineas a pound for that, and only 8s. 6d. for the laft, 
the firft being lefs waxy and pulverifes readier. Notwithftanding 
we take this drug from Ruffia , we export there vail numbers of 
Beaver Ikins. The flefh is reckoned good eating, being preferved, 
after the bones are taken out, by drying it in the fmoke. M. S . biff, 
Hudfons Ray, 
Muffafcus 
