Chapter XVIII: Appendix: No. I (4)

"The canoes that navigate the Canadian lakes are among the most ingenious and useful of the Indian manufactures, and nothing that European ingenuity has devised is so well adapted to the habits and necessities of their mode of life. They are made of the bark of the birch-tree; and of all the various contrivances for transporting burdens by water, these vessels are the most extraordinary. From the slightness of their construction, they would appear to be totally inadequate to contend against the rapids they are continually exposed to. They are of various lengths, from twelve to thirty feet (the latter used only by the Hudson's Bay Company); their breadth from four to six feet, diminishing to a point at each end without distinction. The exterior is the bark of the birch-tree, scarcely the eighth part of an inch in thickness: it is kept distended by thin hoops and the bark; the gunwale is a narrow lath, to which the hoop and the bark are sewed with narrow strips of the roots of the white cedar-tree; and the joinings in the bark are rendered water-proof by a species of gum, said to be collected from the wild cherry-tree, which soon becomes perfectly hard. No iron work or nails are employed in their construction; and they are so light, that the common-sized ones are easily carried for several miles by a man of moderate strength. They are worked by paddles over the sides, and the dexterity of the Indians in working them is surprising. They, of course, push them forward, and not backward, as in the operation of rowing. The largest description will carry about five tons of merchandise, besides eight or ten men. The great objection that attends the use of bark canoes is the difficulty of keeping them water-tight. It requires the greatest attention to prevent them from touching a rock, or even the shore, as they would otherwise break; hence they are never brought near to the bank. Two men keep the canoe afloat at a distance, while the rest of the crew load or unload her. The canoe is unloaded every night, raised out of the water, and left on the beach bottom upward. This is also occasionally done when they stop during the day: it affords an opportunity of allowing the canoe to dry, otherwise the bark absorbs much water, and becomes very heavy. All motion on the part of those on board is to be avoided, as it causes the pitch to crack, and renders the canoe leaky."--Keating's _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, vol. ii., p. 72, quoted in Sir George Simpson's _Overland Journey Round the World_, vol. i., p. 14.

La Hontan, in 1684, gives the same description of the bark canoes, and complains of "the inconvenience of their brittle and tender fabric. If they do but touch or grate upon stone or sand, the cracks of the bark fly open, upon which the water gets in, and spoils the provisions and merchandise. Every day there is some new chink or seam to be gummed over. At night they are always unloaded and carried on shore, where they are made fast with pegs, lest the wind should blow them away."

Charlevoix gives a nearly similar account in 1720, vol. v., p. 285. He adds: "Tous ces canots, jusqu'au plus petits, portent la voile et avec un bon vent peuvent faire vingt lieues par jour. Sans voiles il faut avoir de bons canoteurs pour en faire douze dans une eau morte."

No. XXIX.

"Many of the species of _Acer_ form large, ornamental, and valuable trees. The kinds in most esteem for making sugar are _Acer dasycarpum_ (white, or soft maple), _Acer nigrum_ (black sugar maple), and _Acer saccharinum_ (the sugar maple), the last two yielding the greatest quantity of sugar. The process by which the sap is obtained is extremely simple, nothing more being necessary than to bore a hole in the tree, and conduct the flowing liquid, by means of a hollowed piece of wood, into a vessel beneath. Whatever quantity of sap is collected, it must be boiled down the same evening, as it is liable to be spoiled by fermentation in the course of a few hours. The operation of boiling is generally performed in a very primitive way: it is thus described by the intelligent authoress of _Backwoods of Canada_: 'A pole was fixed across two forked stakes strong enough to bear the weight of the big kettle. The employment during the day was emptying the troughs and chopping wood to supply the fires. In the evening they lit the fires and began boiling down the sap. It was a pretty and picturesque sight to see the sugar boilers, with their bright log-fire among the trees, now stirring up the blazing pile, now throwing in the liquid, and stirring it down with a big ladle. When the fire grew fierce it boiled and foamed up in the kettle, and they had to throw in fresh sap to keep it from running over. When the sap begins to thicken into molasses, it is then brought to the sugar boiler to be finished. The process is simple: it only requires attention in skimming, and keeping the mass from boiling over, till it has arrived at the sugaring point, which is ascertained by dropping a little into cold water. When it is near the proper consistency, the kettle or pot becomes full of yellow froth, that dimples and rises in large bubbles from beneath. These throw out puffs of steam, and when the molasses is in this stage it is nearly converted into sugar. Those who pay great attention to keeping the liquid free from scum, and understand the precise sugaring point, will produce an article little, if at all, inferior to Muscovado.' It is, however, often adulterated with flour, which thickens and renders it heavy. It is very hard, and requires to be scraped with a knife when used for tea, otherwise the lumps would be a considerable time in dissolving. The Canadians say that it possesses medicinal qualities, for which they eat it in large lumps. It very possibly acts as a corrective to the vast quantity of fat pork which they consume, as it possesses a greater degree of acidity than the West India sugar. Before salt was in use, sugar was eaten with meat, as a corrective; hence, probably, the custom of eating sweet apple-sauce with pork and goose, and currant-jelly with hare and venison."--Lambert, vol. i., p. 84.

"The production of maple sugar amounted (in 1836) to about 25,000 cwt. annually. A plantation of maple is termed 'suegari,' and is considered very valuable: the sugar sells from 3_d._ to 6_d._ per pound. A moderate tree is said to yield from twenty to thirty gallons of the sap, from which may be extracted five or six pounds of sugar. Nor is sugar the only product to be obtained from this valuable tree: strong and excellent vinegar is made from it, as well as good wine; and, with the addition of hops, sound and pleasant beer may be had at a very trifling expense."--H. Murray's _Canada_, vol. iii., p. 315; Gray's _Canada_, p. 224.

"It is a very remarkable fact that these trees, after having been tapped for six or seven successive years, always yield more sap than they do on being first wounded. This sap, however, is not so rich as that which the trees distill for the first time; but, from its coming in an increased portion, as much sugar is generally produced from a single tree on the fifth or sixth year of its being tapped as on the first.

"The ingenious Mr. Nooth, of Quebec, who is at the head of the general hospital in Canada, has made a variety of experiments upon the manufacture of maple sugar. He has granulated, and also refined it, so as to render it equal to the best lump sugar that is made in England. To convince the Canadians also, who are as incredulous on some points as they are credulous on others, that it was really maple sugar that they saw thus refined, he has contrived to have large lumps, exhibiting the sugar in its different stages toward refinement, the lower part of the lumps being left hard, similar to the common cakes, the middle part granulated, and the upper part refined. Dr. Nooth has calculated that the sale of the molasses alone would be fully adequate to the expense of refining the maple sugar, if a manufactory for that purpose were established. Some attempts have been made to establish one of the kind at Quebec, but they have never succeeded, as the persons by whom they were made were adventurers that had not sufficient capital for such an undertaking."--Weld, 1800, p. 271.

Charlevoix says in his _Journal_, "On me regale ici d'eau d'erable--elle est delicieuse, d'un fraicheur admirable et fort saine. Pour qu'elle coule avec abondance, il faut qu'il y ait beaucoup de neiges sur la terre, qu'il ait gele pendant la nuit, que le ciel soit serein, et que le vent ne soit pas trop froid. Nos erables auroient peut-etre la meme vertu, si nous avions en France autant de neiges qu'en Canada, et si elles y duroient aussi lontems. J'en ai donne a foudre a un refineur d'Orleans qui n'y a trouve d'autre defaut que ce qu'il n'avoit pas ete suffisamment egoute. Il le croyoit meme de meilleure qualite de l'autre."--Vol. v., p. 181.

No. XXX.

"Quelques nations tirent leur subsistance, d'une sorte de grain que la Nature produit d'elle-meme; on le nomme le folle-avoine, dont les Francais ont transporte le nom a quelques-unes de ces nations. C'est une plante marecageuse qui approche assez de l'avoine, mais qui est mieux nourrie. Les sauvages vont la chercher dans leurs canots, au tems de sa maturite. Ils ne font que secouer les epis, les quels s'egraissent facilement, de sorte que leurs canots sont bientot remplis, et leurs provisions bientot faites, sans qu'ils soient obliges de labourer ni de semer."--Lafitau, tom. ii., 96.

This grain is the _Zizania aquatica_ of Linnaeus. Kalm calls it the water tare-grass, and says that "the Indians reckon it among their dainty dishes. It grows in plenty in their lakes, in stagnant waters, and sometimes in rivers which flow slowly. They gather its seeds in October, and prepare them in different ways, and chiefly as groats, which take almost as well as rice."--Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 696.

"Common in all the waters from Canada to Florida, and known by the name of Tuscarora,[225] or wild rice."--Pursh. Sir Joseph Banks introduced it into this country in 1790, and cultivated it abundantly in the ponds of his villa of Spring Grove. The seeds were obtained from Canada in jars of water. Mr. Lambert is of opinion that this grain might be cultivated in many shallow lakes of Ireland, and turned to considerable advantage.

[Footnote 225: The Tuscaroras, so called from the Wild Rice, were a race of the Iroquois. It is of them that the fable was narrated that Owen Chapelain (in 1619) saved himself from their hands, when they were about to scalp him, by speaking in his Gaelic mother tongue. Catlin is inclined to consider the fair and frequently blue-eyed nation of the Tuscaroras to be a mixed race, between the ancient Welsh and the American aboriginal tribes.]

No. XXXI.

"The soil and climate of Canada are admirably adapted to the growth of hemp. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., assert, in their preface to Vol. XXI., 'That they have ascertained, by actual experiments, that Canada can furnish hemp equal in quality for the uses of the navy to that from the Baltic.' Hemp is one of the most valuable and profitable productions of the earth. It enriches the cultivator, and furnishes shipping with the most useful and important part of its equipment. The several processes of hemp, also, benefit the state, by employing many hands that could not be so usefully and profitably engaged in other occupations. The advantage, therefore, which a country must derive from the culture and manufacture of hemp, throughout its several branches, can not be doubted, and is sufficiently proved by the importance which Russia has derived from her commerce in that article, by which she has, in a manner, rendered the greatest navy in the world dependent upon her will and caprice. The importation of hemp from Russia has annually amounted to no less than 30,000 tons for the general consumption of the country, and for the use of the royal navy. It must, therefore, in every point of view, be a great object to Great Britain to draw her supplies of hemp from her own colonies. The efforts of government to promote its general cultivation have hitherto proved very partially successful. The failure is attributed, in a great degree, to the attachment of the Canadians to old customs, and the opposition of the Romish clergy, hemp not being a tithable article. The wheat merchants and the seigniors, who depend for success in trade and for the constant employment of their mills, the chief source of their revenues, upon abundant crops of wheat, are strongly opposed to the introduction of the culture of hemp, which they conceive would partly, if not wholly, annihilate that of wheat."--Lambert, vol. i., p. 449.

M. de Talon, the able Intendant of Quebec (in 1665), strongly recommended the cultivation of hemp, having ascertained that the nature of the soil and climate promised every possible success.

No. XXXII.

"It is calculated that there is a greater proportion of wheat soil in the Canadas than in England, and that, if this valuable grain were cultivated in this latter country in the same defective manner as in these provinces, it could not be of much value. Climate, an equally important particular, seems, at first sight, less favorable than soil. A region which for several months, and, in some districts, for more than half the year, remains buried in frost and snow, may well be supposed unfriendly to vegetation. The strong, steady heat of summer, however, counteracts almost completely this chilling influence, and matures, with surprising rapidity, the most valuable plants. Mr. Evans has had wheat in ear nine weeks after it was sown. Even the violent alternations of frost and thaw, of snow and rain, instead of injuring vegetation, are found to pulverize and soften the soil, and thus render it more fertile with less culture. The great steadiness of the summer weather exempts plants from sundry vicissitudes which they undergo in a more changeable climate. From these causes, the _annuals_ suited to a temperate region grow in Canada to full perfection, and as these include the grains fitted for bread, the food most essential to man, she has little cause to envy any other country. In regard to wheat, indeed, the chief of those vegetables, this observation must be somewhat restricted. Its plants are so far biennial, that to acquire the very first quality they must be sown during the preceding autumn. Yet this course has not been found safe in Lower Canada, where wheat must be treated as an annual, sown in spring, and reaped before the end of the year. The defect is owing, not to the rigor of the winter, still less to the depth of snow, which, on the contrary, is found to protect and cherish vegetable growth, but is ascribed to severe frosts, violent and chilling rains, occurring after the snow has left the ground, and the plants have made some progress. An opinion is entertained that, with good management, autumn wheat might be raised with success. The British American Land Company have decidedly adopted this idea, and some successful experiments have been made. Mr. Evans, however, is of opinion that, from the above causes, unless in some favored situations, it must always be an unsafe crop, and peculiarly liable to disease. He had once autumn and spring wheats growing on the same field, when, although the first was completely ruined by rust and mildew, the other proved excellent. He seems to apprehend, therefore, that Lower Canada must be content with her good spring growth. It is said, however, to require a soil more minutely pulverized, while the grain produced contains a greater proportion of gluten, and is thus harder and more difficult to grind. In Upper Canada, autumn wheat is raised without any difficulty."--H. Murray, vol. i., p. 339.

"Canada wheat is of an excellent quality: it is thought superior to the Baltic wheat, being harder, and yielding more flour in proportion to the quality. The Canadian farmers are very negligent in preventing the growth of weeds, so that the wheat, when thrashed, is very foul, and seldom or never in a condition to be shipped until it is cleaned. For that purpose, it undergoes the operation of being once or twice put through what is called the _cribbles_."--Gray's _Canada_, p. 199.

No. XXXIII.

It is still a subject of dispute among naturalists whether the moose deer and the elk are the same animal. Professor Kalm and his translator, Forster, formed this opinion principally on the Algonquin name for the elk, _Musu_, the final u being scarcely sounded. The Algonquins, before the Iroquois attained to such great power in America, were the principal nation in the northern part of the continent, and their language a kind of universal language. Charlevoix says, "Ce qu'on appelle ici Orignal, c'est ce qu'en Allemagne, en Pologne, et en Muscovie on nomme Elau, ou la Grand Bete." The first mention of this remarkable animal is in a tract of Mr. Josselyn's, entitled "New England Rarities." That author says, "It is a very fine creature, growing to twelve feet high; the horns are extremely beautiful, with broad palms, some of them full grown, being two fathoms from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other." The same author, in another work, entitled "Two Voyages to New England," calls this creature "a monster of superfluity;" and says that, "when full grown, it is many times larger than an ox." The best account, however, of the moose deer is Mr. Paul Dudley's. This gentleman says they are of two kinds: the common light-gray moose deer, called by the Indians _Wampoose_, and the larger black moose. The gray moose is the same animal which Mr. Clayton, in his account of the Virginian quadrupeds, calls the elk; and this is the creature described in the Anatomical Discoveries of the Paris Academy under the name of the stag of Canada. Horns of this creature have been sent from Virginia, and called elks' horns; they are wholly the same with those of our red deer, except in size, weighing about twelve pounds, and measuring from the burr to the tip about six feet long.--_Phil. Trans._, No. cxliv., p. 386; Abr., vol. vii., p. 447. Mr. Dudley says that the gray moose is like the English deer, and that these creatures herd together thirty or more in a company. The black or large moose has been taken, he says, measuring 14 spans in height from the withers, which, allowing 9 inches to the span, is 10-1/2 feet. The large horns found fossil in Ireland have, from their vast dimensions, been supposed to have originally belonged to the black moose deer; they are provided with brow antlers between the burr and the palm, which the European elk has not, and the American has. However, the largest horns of the American moose ever brought over are only 32 inches long, and 34 between tip and tip, while some of the Irish horns are near 12 feet between tip and tip, and 6 feet 4 inches long; they may probably be ranked among those remains which fossilists distinguish by the title of diluvian.

Professor Kalm says, "They sometimes dig very large horns out of the ground in Ireland, and nobody in that country, or any where else in the world, knows any animal that has such horns. This has induced many to believe that it is the moose deer so famous in North America, and that the horns found were of animals of this kind which had formerly lived in that island, but were gradually destroyed. It has even been concluded that Ireland, in distant ages, either was connected with North America, or that a number of little islands, which are lost at present, made a chain between them. This led me to inquire whether an animal with such excessive great horns as are ascribed to the moose deer had ever been seen in any part of this country. Mr. Bertram told me that he had carefully inquired to that purpose, and was entirely of opinion that there was no such animal in North America. Mr. Franklin related that he had, when a boy, seen two of the animals which they call moose deer; but he well remembered that they were not near of such a size as they must have been if the horns found in Ireland were to fit them. The two animals which he saw were brought to Boston in order to be sent to England to Queen Anne. The height of the animal up to the back was that of a pretty tall horse, but the head and its horns were still higher. On my travels in Canada, I often inquired of the Frenchmen whether there had ever been seen so large an animal in this country as some people say there is in North America, and with such great horns as are sometimes dug out in Ireland. But I was always told that they had never heard of it, much less seen it; some added that if there was such an animal, they certainly must have met with it in some of their excursions in the woods."--Kalm, in Pink., vol. xiii., p. 472. In shape the elk or moose deer is much less elegant than the rest of the deer kind, having a very short and thick neck; a large head; horns dilating immediately from the base into a broad, palmated form; a thick, broad upper lip, hanging very much over the lower; very high shoulders, and long legs. The hair is a dark grayish-brown color, strong, coarse, and elastic, much longer on the top of the shoulders and ridge of the neck than on other parts, forming together a kind of stiffish mane; the eye and ears are large, the hoofs broad, and the tail extremely short. The elk resides principally in the midst of forests, for the convenience of browsing the boughs of trees, because it is prevented from grazing with facility on account of the shortness of the neck and the disproportionate length of the legs. Their gait is remarkable; their general pace is described to be a high, shambling, but very swift trot, the feet being lifted up very high, and the hoofs clattering much during their motion; in their common walk they lift their feet very high, and will without difficulty step over a gate five feet high. The flesh of the moose is extremely sweet and nourishing; the Indians say that they can travel three times further after a meal of moose than after any other animal food. The tongues are excellent; but the nose is said to be perfect marrow, and is considered the greatest delicacy in Canada. The skin makes excellent buff, being strong, soft, and light. The Indians dress the hide, and, after soaking it for some time, stretch and render it supple by a lather of the brains in hot water. They not only make their snow-shoes of the skin, but after the chase cover the hull of their canoes with it, in which they return home with the spoils of their chase. The hair on the neck, withers, and hams of a full-grown elk is of considerable use in making mattresses and saddles; and the palmated parts of the horns are further excavated by the Indians, and converted into ladles and other culinary articles. An ancient superstition has prevailed that the elk is naturally subject to epilepsy, and that it finds its cure by scratching its ear with the hoof until it draws blood; in consequence of this notion, the hoofs of the elk form an article of the ancient Materia Medica. A piece of the hoof was anciently set in a ring, and worn as a preservative against the complaint above mentioned; sometimes the hoof was held in the patient's hand, or applied to the pulse, to the left ear, or suspended from the neck.--Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, art. Cervus Alces; Lambert's _Canada_, vol. i., p. 414.

Charlevoix speaks of the species having been almost entirely destroyed even in his time (1721) by the indiscriminate carnage of the early settlers.--Vol. v., p. 184. "Les Orignaux etoient partout a foison, lorsque nous decouvrimes a pays, et ils pouvoient faire un objet pour le commerce, une douceur pour la vie, si on les avoit mieux menages."--Vol. v., p. 193.

La Hontan minutely describes the chase of the elk or moose deer, in which laborious amusement he spent three months. Fifty-six elks were killed by the party of savages who accompanied him. He says that the flesh of the Orignal eats deliciously. He was assured by the savages that in summer it would trot for three days and three nights without intermission; it neither runs nor skips, he says, but its trot will almost keep up with the running of a hart.--La Hontan, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 284.

No. XXXIV.

_Ursus Americanus_, a species distinct from the black bear of Europe: it has a long, pointed nose, and narrow forehead, the hair of a glossy black color, smoother and shorter than that of the European kind, and is generally smaller than the European bear. The brown bear, _Ursus Arctos_, is also found in some of the northern parts of America. La Hontan observed the difference of disposition between the brown and the black bear; the latter, he says, "are extremely black, but not mischievous, for they never attack one unless they be wounded or fired upon." The reddish (_rougeatres_) bears are mischievous creatures, for they fall fiercely upon the huntsmen, whereas the black fly from them. The former sort are less, and more nimble than the latter. The flesh of the black bear, and, above all, their feet, are very nice victuals. The savages affirm that no flesh is so delicious as that of bears, and I think they are right.[226]--La Hontan, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 288. Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 172.

The _Ursus Maritimus_, or Polar Bear, is confined to the coldest parts of the globe, being unknown except on the coasts of Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and Spitzbergen. (Lambert says that they have been seen at Newfoundland, and La Hontan saw one at a distance at Placentia.) This animal grows to so great a size that the skin of some are thirteen feet long. They are so fond of human flesh that they will greedily disinter dead bodies; they will attack companies of armed men, and will even board small vessels. The skins of the Polar Bear were formerly offered by the hunters of the Arctic regions to the high altars of cathedral and other churches, for the priest to stand on during the celebration of mass in winter.--Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, art. Ursus.

Captain Clarke agrees with La Hontan in ascribing fierceness of disposition to the brown bear, and also speaks of it as "reddish," or of a bay brown. "We had rather," says Captain Clarke, "encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear; their very track in the mud or sand, which we have sometimes found 11 inches long and 7-1/4 wide, exclusive of the talons, is alarming. The wonderful power of life which they possess renders them dreadful: there is no chance of killing them by a single shot, unless the ball goes through the brain." ... Six of Captain Clarke's party, all good hunters, having sight of a large one of the brown breed, came unperceived within forty paces of him; four of them then fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which went directly through the lungs. The brave beast made at them instantly; as he came near, the two men who had reserved their shot both wounded him; one of the balls broke his shoulder, and retarded his motion for a moment; before they could reload, he was so near that they all ran to the river; two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated, hid themselves among the willows, and, firing as fast as they could reload, struck him repeatedly, but every shot seemed as if it only served to guide him, and he pursued two of them so closely that at last they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped down a perpendicular bank of twenty feet into the water. Even this did not secure them; Bruin sprang after them, and was within a few feet of the hindermost, when one of the hunters from the shore shot him in the head. It was found that eight balls had passed through him. Another brown bear, after being shot five times through the lungs, and receiving four other wounds, swam half across the river to a sand-bar. This creature measured 8 feet 7-1/2 inches from the nose to the extremity of the hind feet, and his heart was as big as that of a large ox, his maw ten times larger. Another, having been shot through the middle of the lungs, pursued his enemy for half a mile, than traveled more than a mile in another direction, and dug, as if for his grave, a hole for himself in the earth two feet deep and five feet long, in which he was found by the hunters. The skin of this beast was a burden for two men.--Captain Lewis and Clarke's _Travels to the Source of the Missouri River_.

[Footnote 226: Bear's flesh is reckoned one of the greatest rarities among the Chinese, insomuch that, as Du Halde informs us, the emperor will send fifty or a hundred leagues into Tartary to procure it for a great entertainment.]

No. XXXV.

"None of the foxes of North America possess the long-enduring speed of the European kind, their strength appearing to be exhausted at the first burst, after which they are easily overtaken by a mounted horseman. The American cross fox (_Canis decussatus_) is probably nothing more than a variety of the red fox of that country (_Canis fulvus_), though usually of smaller size. Its fur is highly esteemed; a single skin, not many years ago, being worth from four to five guineas, while that of the red fox did not bring more than 15s. The black, or silver fox (_Canis argentatus_) is a much rarer and still more valuable variety, of which seldom more than four or five individuals are ever taken at any single post throughout the year. It varies from a mixed or hoary hue to a shining black, and La Hontan observes that, in his time, the skin of one was worth its weight in gold. We know that it still brings six times the price of any fur obtained in America."--H. Murray, vol. iii., p. 236.

No. XXXVI.

Charlevoix says that hares and rabbits are the same in America as in Europe, except that their hinder feet are longer than their fore feet. The rabbit, however, has never been found wild in any part of America. La Hontan says that the Ossae are little animals like hares, and resemble them in every thing excepting the ears and fore feet.

No. XXXVII.

Sciurus, a name formed of two Greek words, signifying shade and tail, because the tail serves this animal for an umbrella. The Sciurus Niger, Black Squirrel; the S. Vulpinus, Cat Squirrel; the S. Hudsonius, Hudson's Bay Squirrel, and S. Striatus, Striped Squirrel, are all natives of Canada, besides two species of flying squirrels. The S. Cinereus, Gray Squirrel, is confined entirely to North America. It is about half the size of a full-grown rabbit; the animal is of an elegant pale gray, with the inside of the limbs and the under part of the body white; the ears and tail are sometimes tinged with black. It is frequently so numerous as to do incredible mischief to plantations of corn; hence it is a proscribed animal, and 3_d._ per head given for every one killed; at which rate, in the year 1749, L8000 were paid in rewards.

The black squirrel, Weld says, is also peculiar to North America. It is entirely of a shining black, except that the muzzle and the tail are sometimes white; specimens have sometimes been seen with a white ring round the neck. "In this year" (1796), Weld says, "the black squirrels migrated from the south, from the territory of the United States. As if conscious of their inability to cross a very wide piece of water, they bent their course toward Niagara River, above the falls, and at its narrowest and most tranquil part, crossed over into the British territory. It was calculated that upward of 50,000 of them crossed the river in the course of two or three days, and such great depredations did they commit on arriving at the opposite side, that in one part of the country the farmers deemed themselves very fortunate where they got in as much as one third of their crops of corn. Some writers have asserted that these animals can not swim, but that when they come to a river, in migrating, each one provides itself with a piece of wood or bark, upon which, when a favorable wind offers, they embark, spread their bushy tails to catch the wind, and are thus wafted over to the opposite side. Whether these animals do or do not sometimes cross in this manner, I can not take upon me to say; but I can safely affirm that they do not always cross so, for I have often shot them in the water while swimming. Their tail is useful to them by way of rudder, and they use it with great dexterity; owing to its being so light and bushy, the greater part of it floats upon the water, and thus helps to support the animal."--P. 330.

The S. Striatus, Striped Squirrel, is a native of the colder parts of America and Asia, but has sometimes been found in Europe also. Its body is yellowish, with five longitudinal stripes of a blackish color. It differs from the major part of the squirrel tribe in its mode of life, which rather resembles that of the dormouse. It resembles some of the mouse tribe in this, that it is provided with cheek pouches for the temporary reception of food, a peculiarity not to be found in any other species of squirrel. It is not known whether this is the same species as that described by La Hontan as "Suisse squirrels, little animals resembling rats." The epithet Suisse is bestowed upon them in regard that the hair which covers their body is streaked with black and white, and resembles a Suisse's doublet; and these streaks make a ring on each thigh that strongly resembles a Suisse's cap. He also describes "the flying squirrels, as big as a large rat, and of a grayish white color. They are as drowsy as those of the other species are watchful. They are called flying squirrels, in regard that they fly from one tree to another, by the means of a certain skin which stretches itself out in the form of a wing when they make these little flights." The S. Volucellae and the S. Hudsonius are the only species of the flying squirrel found in America. The former is an animal of great beauty, and is readily tamed, showing a considerable degree of attachment to its possessor. It is naturally of a gregarious disposition, and may be seen flying, to the number of ten or twelve together, from tree to tree.--Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, art. Sciurus. La Hontan, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 352. Kalm, in Pink., vol. xiii., p. 480.

No. XXXVIII.

"The most interesting feature of the animal creation in the Western Continent is, perhaps, the beaver (_Castor fiber_). These amphibia, indeed, occur in the northern parts of Europe and Siberia, but on comparatively so small a scale, both in number and size, that the beaver may be viewed with propriety as specially American. There appears to be absolutely no animal which makes so close an approach to human art and intelligence. The beaver builds his habitation either in a pond or in the channel of a river, converted into a pond by strong piles being laid across. This operation involves the greatest display of ingenuity. A tall tree is selected, and filed round with the teeth till it is undermined and falls across the stream. It is then fastened down by smaller trees and branches, brought often from a distance, and connected with earth. In the little lake thus formed, the beaver rears his abode to the height of two, three, or four stories, half above and half under the water, and with an opening into both elements. Stones and earth, as well as wood, are used in forming the walls, which, by the joint operation of the feet and the tail, are brought into a mass so solid as to be proof against the action of current, wind, and weather. The outside is plastered in the neatest manner, the floor kept excessively clean, strewed with box and fir. A large provision of food, consisting of bark and leaves, is stored up for the winter. The beavers possess a social and almost a moral existence. Each mansion contains from six to thirty inhabitants, who live together in the greatest harmony, and afford mutual aid and co-operation. From twelve to fourteen houses united form a village, containing thus a population of 200 or 300.

"The flesh of these animals is much prized by the Indians and Canadian voyageurs, especially when roasted in the skin after the hair has been singed off. The enjoyment of this expensive luxury is of course restrained as much as possible by the fur traders. The Iroquois are the greatest beaver-catchers in Canada. Great injury has resulted from the indiscriminate capture of old and young, and the too frequent trenching of the same dams. It is known that in the year 1743 the amount of their skins brought into the ports of London and Rochelle exceeded 150,000, besides a considerable quantity introduced illicitly into Great Britain; while in 1837, the importation into London, from more than four times the extent of fur country formerly possessed, did not much exceed 800,000.

"There are two modes of taking the beaver--one by traps, which is the easiest, and generally followed by single adventurers; the other is what is termed trenching, or the ice chisel. On a beaver house being discovered, all the canals leading from it are stopped up; then, with the instrument above named, it is broken into, and the old animals speared. The young are left untouched, and thus the breed remains uninjured, while in trapping both old and young equally fall victims. The company, therefore, have prohibited the latter operation in all their settlements. The skins are divided into parchment, or those of the old animals; and cub, or those of the young ones. The latter are the finest, but, from their smaller size, not of equal value with the others. They have, of course, become much rarer since their capture was prohibited."--Murray's _America_, vol. ii., p. 306.

Kalm says that he ate beaver flesh, and thought it any thing but delicious, as he had been told it was. He says that it must be boiled in several waters from morning till noon to make it lose the bad taste it has. Charlevoix says the same. The flesh is reckoned best when the beaver has lived only on vegetables; when he has eaten fish it does not taste well. It was a popular food among the French Roman Catholics, as the only meat they could indulge in on fast days, his holiness, in his system (Kalm says), having ranked the beaver among the fish. This arrangement is attributed by Charlevoix to two numerous and learned bodies in France. "Le Castor a ete juridiquement declare poisson par la Faculte de Medicine de Paris, et en consequence de cette declaration la Faculte de Theologie a decide qu'on pouvoit manger sa chair les jours maigres. Par sa queue il est tout a fait poisson." La queue--the tail, so remarkable in natural history, is thus described by Charlevoix, one of the earliest observers of the habits of the beaver in North America: "Elle est presque ovale, epaisse d'un pouce, et longue d'un pied. Elle est couverte d'une peau ecailleuse dont les ecailles sont hexagones, ont une demi ligne d'epaisseur, sur trois ou quatre lignes de longueur, et sont appuyees les unes sur les autres comme toutes celles des poissons. Une pellicule tres delicate leur sert de fond, et elles y sont enchassees de maniere, qu'on peut aisement les en separer apres la mort de l'animal.... Tous les vuides de leurs batimens sont remplis d'une terre grasse si bien appliquee qu'il n'y passe pas une goute d'eau. C'est avec leurs pattes que les Castors preparent cette terre, et leur queue ne leur sert pas seulement de truelle pour maconner, mais encore d'auge pour voiturer ce mortier, ce qu'ils font en se trainant sur leurs pattes de derriere. Arrives au bord de l'eau, ils le prennent avec les dents, et pour l'employer, ils se servent d'abord de leurs pattes, ensuite de leur queue." Charlevoix applies the happy term of "une petite Venise" to the habitations of a society of beavers. He says, that in their erection "les proportions sont toujours exactement gardees. La regle et le compas sont dans l'oeil du grand maitre des arts et des sciences. On a observe que le cote du courant de l'eau est toujours en tatus, et l'autre cote parfaitement a plomb. En un mot il seroit difficile a nos meilleurs ouvriers de rien faire de plus solide et de plus regulier." Both La Hontan and Charlevoix speak of the "Castor terriers." "They are called by the savages 'the idle or lazy kind,' as being expelled by the other beavers from the kennels in which these animals are lodged, because they are unwilling to work. They make holes in the earth, like rabbits or foxes, and resemble the other sort in their figure, except that the hair is rubbed off many parts of their body by their rubbing against the earth whenever they stir out from their holes."--La Hontan, p. 307. Charlevoix adds, "Ils sont maigres, c'est la fruit de leur paresse. Les Castors, ou Bievres d'Europe, tiennent plus de ceux-ci que des autres; en effet M. Lemery dit qu'ils se retirent dans les creux et dans les cavernes qui se rencontrent sur les bords des rivieres surtout en Pologne. Il y en a aussi en Allemagne le long de l'Ehre, et en France, sur le Rhone, l'Isere, et l'Oise. Ce qui est certain c'est que nous ne voyons point dans les Castors Europeens le merveilleux qui distingue si fort ceux du Canada.... Avant la decouverte de l'Amerique on trouve dans les anciens titres des Chapeliers de Paris des reglemens pour la fabrique des chapeaux Bievres, or Bievre et Castor c'est absolument le meme animal, mais soit que le Bievre Europeen soit devenu extremement rare, on que son poil n'eut pas la meme bonte que celui du Castor Americain, on ne parle plus gueres que de ce dernier.... Leur poil est de deux sortes par tout le corps, excepte aux pattes, ou il n'y en a qu'un fort couet. Le plus grand est long de huit a dix lignes, il est rude, gros, luisant, et c'est celui qui donne la couleur a la bete. On n'en fait aucun usage. L'autre poil est un duvet tres fin, fort epais, long tout au plus d'un pouce, et c'est celui qu'on met en oeuvre; on l'appelloit autrefois en Europe, Laine de Moscovie."--Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 147.

"In 1669 an attempt was made to employ the flix or down of the beaver in the manufacture of cloths, flannels, stockings. Much more wool, however, than flix was required, the hair of the beaver being so short, and this prevented the manufacture being very profitable. It flourished for a while, however, in an establishment in the Faubourg St. Antoine, near Paris, but finally was given up on finding by experience that the stuffs lost their dye when wet, and that, when dry again, they were harsh and stiff as felts."--Rees's _Cyclopaedia_, art. Beaver.

"In Captain Lewis and Clarke's Travels to the Source of the Missouri," it is mentioned that "the beavers who have not been invaded here by the furrier are continually altering the course of the river. They dam up the small channels of about twenty yards between the islands; when they have effected this, their pond ere long becomes filled with mud and sand; they then remove to another; this is in like manner filled up; and thus the river, having its course obstructed, spreads on all sides, and cuts the projecting points of lands into islands."--_Quarterly Review_, vol. xii., p. 346.

Weld mentions, in 1796, that "the indiscriminate slaughter of beavers had so much diminished their numbers that an annual deficiency of 15,000 beaver skins had for some years been observed in the number brought to Montreal."--P. 551.

"One day a gentleman, long resident in this country, espied five young beavers sporting in the water, leaping upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another off, and playing a thousand interesting tricks. He approached softly, under cover of the bushes, and prepared to fire on the unsuspecting creatures; but a nearer approach discovered to him such a similitude between their gestures and the infantile caresses of his own children that he threw aside his gun."--Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, p. 91.

"The proprietor of one of the large quarries of gypsum on the Shubenacadie showed me some wooden stakes, dug up a few days before by one of his laborers from a considerable depth in a peat bog. His men were persuaded that they were artificially cut by a tool, and were the relics of aboriginal Indians; but, having been a trapper of beavers in his younger days, he knew well that they owed their shape to the teeth of these creatures. We meet with the skulls and bones of beavers in the fens of Cambridgeshire, and elsewhere in England. May not some of the old tales of artificially cut wood, occurring at great depths in peats and morasses, which have puzzled many a learned antiquary, admit of the like explanation?"--Lyell's _Travels in America_, vol. ii., p. 229.

No. XXXIX.

"The Hudson's Bay Company is now the only survivor of the numerous exclusive bodies, to which almost every branch of British trade was at one time subjected. The Northwest Company, after a long and furious contest, destructive alike to the interests of both, and most demoralizing to the savage aborigines, were at length obliged to yield to their rivals; and, in consequence of their overstrained exertions, they became involved beyond their capital. They obtained in 1821 an honorable capitulation. On transferring all their property and means of influence, the principal partners were admitted to shares in the Hudson's Bay Company, who took the inferior officers into their service. Thus these two concerns were united, with great advantage to the peace of the fur countries, and perhaps to the permanent interests of the trade. A great blank was indeed felt in the city where the partners had resided, and where, according to Washington Irving, they had held huge feasts and revels, such as are described to have taken place in Highland castles. 'The hospitable magnates of Montreal, the lords of the lakes and forests, have passed away,' and that city, as to the fur trade, has sunk to a subordinate station.

"In the present case, there are some peculiar circumstances which plead strongly in favor of the monopoly exercised by the Hudson's Bay Company. For example, their trade is carried on throughout vast regions, free from all control of law, and tenanted by savage races, who are easily prompted to deeds of violence. The struggle with the Northwest Company filled large tracts with outrage, often amounting to bloodshed. The article, too, by far the most prized by those tribes, and which, amid an eager rivalry, can not be prevented from coming into the market, is spirits, the immoderate use of which is productive of the most dreadful consequences. The company, by their present position, obtained the opportunity, of which they have most laudably availed themselves, to withdraw it altogether as an object of trade, merely giving an occasional glass when the natives visit the factories. They have even prohibited it from passing, under any pretext, to the northward of Cumberland House, on the Saskatchawan, so that all the settlements beyond form complete temperance societies. Another very important specialty in their case consists in the nature of the commodities drawn from this range of territory, namely, they are such as human industry can not produce or multiply according to the demand. The wild animals, which afford its staple of furs and skins, exist only in a limited number, and being destined to give way in proportion as colonization advances, will soon be thinned, or even utterly exterminated. Bands of individual hunters, with no permanent interest in the country, capture all they can reach, young and old indiscriminately, without any regard to keeping up the breed. Thus the beaver, the most valuable of the furred animals, has been nearly destroyed in Upper and Lower Canada, and much diminished in the districts beyond the Rocky Mountains, which are traversed by trapping parties from the States. During the competition of the Northwest adventurers, a great part even of the wooded countries suffered severely; but since the Hudson's Bay Company obtained the entire control, they have carefully nursed the various animals, removing their stations from the districts where they had become scarce, and prohibiting all wasteful and destructive modes of capture. It may be finally observed, that in this vast open territory the means of excluding rivalry are so imperfect, that without good management and liberal dealing it would be impossible to maintain their privilege. In fact, Mr. Irving admits, that by the legitimate application of large capital, by good organization, regular transmission of supplies, with faithful and experienced servants, they have carried all before them, even in the western territory, where they are exposed to a full competition from the United States. Several associations from thence have made very active efforts to supplant or rival them, but without success."--Washington Irving's _Adventures of Captain Bonneville_, vol. ii., p. 17, 19; vol. iii., p. 267, 272; H. Murray's _British America_, vol. iii., p. 83.

No. XL.

"This species of rattlesnake is most commonly found between four and five feet in length, and as thick as the wrist of a large man. Its body approaches to a triangular form, the back bone rising higher than any other part of the animal. It is not with the teeth which the rattlesnake uses for ordinary purposes that it strikes its enemy, but with two long, crooked fangs in the upper jaw, which point down the throat. When about to use these fangs, it rears itself up as much as possible, throws back its head, drops its under jaw, and, springing forward upon its tail, endeavors to hook itself, as it were, upon its enemy. In order to raise itself upon its tail, it coils itself up previously in a spiral line, with the head in the middle. It can not spring further forward than about half its own length. Tho body of the rattlesnake, finely pulverized, after being dried to a cinder over the fire, and then infused in a certain portion of brandy, is said to be a never-failing remedy against the rheumatism. The liquor is taken inwardly, in the quantity of a wine-glassful at once about three times a day. It is said that one of the reasons why these creatures are decreasing so much in the neighborhood of human habitations, is, that they are eaten by the pigs."--Sir G. Simpson's _Journey round the World_, vol. i., p. 159; Weld, p. 411.