FOOTNOTES:[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.
[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.
[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, theannualssuited 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 thecribbles."—Gray'sCanada, 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 Bête." 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 IndiansWampoose, 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 10½ 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'sCyclopædia, art. Cervus Alces; Lambert'sCanada, 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 étoient partout à foison, lorsque nous découvrimes a pays, et ils pouvoient faire un objet pour le commerce, une douceur pour la vie, si on les avoit mieux ménages."—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 (rougeâtres) 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.
TheUrsus 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'sCyclopædia, 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 7¼ 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 7½ 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'sTravels to the Source of the Missouri River.
FOOTNOTES:[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.
[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.
[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 Ossæ 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 3d.per head given for every one killed; at which rate, in the year 1749, £8000 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. Volucellæ 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'sCyclopædia, 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'sAmerica, 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 été juridiquement declaré poisson par la Faculté de Médicine de Paris, et en consequence de cette déclaration la Faculté de Theologie a decide qu'on pouvoit manger sa chair les jours maigres. Par sa queuë il est tout a fait poisson." La queuë—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, épaisse d'un pouce, et longue d'un pied. Elle est couverte d'une peau écailleuse dont les écailles sont hexagones, ont une demi ligne d'épaisseur, sur trois ou quatre lignes de longueur, et sont appuyées les unes sur les autres comme toutes celles des poissons. Une pellicule très délicate leur sert de fond, et elles y sont enchâssées de manière, qu'on peut aisément les en séparer après la mort de l'animal.... Tous les vuides de leurs batimens sont remplis d'une terre grasse si bien appliquée qu'il n'y passe pas une goûte d'eau. C'est avec leurs pattes que les Castors preparent cette terre, et leur queuë ne leur sert pas seulement de truelle pour maçonner, mais encore d'auge pour voiturer ce mortier, ce qu'ils font en se traînant sur leurs pattes de derrière. Arrivés 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 queuë." 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 gardées. La régle et le compas sont dans l'œil du grand maître des arts et des sciences. On a observé que le côté du courant de l'eau est toujours en tatus, et l'autre côté parfaitement à plomb. En un mot il seroit difficile à 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 Biévres 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 rivières surtout en Pologne. Il y en a aussi en Allemagne le long de l'Ehre, et en France, sur le Rhone, l'Isère, et l'Oise. Ce qui est certain c'est que nous ne voyons point dans les Castors Européens le merveilleux qui distingue si fort ceux du Canada.... Avant la découverte de l'Amérique on trouve dans les anciens titres des Chapeliers de Paris des réglemens pour la fabrique des chapeaux Biévres, or Biévre et Castor c'est absolument le même animal, mais soit que le Biévre Européen soit devenu extrêmement rare, on que son poil n'eût pas la même bonté que celui du Castor Américain, on ne parle plus guéres que de ce dernier.... Leur poil est de deux sortes par tout le corps, excepté aux pattes, où il n'y en a qu'un fort couet. Le plus grand est long de huit à dix lignes, il est rude, gros, luisant, et c'est celui qui donne la couleur à la bête. On n'en fait aucun usage. L'autre poil est un duvet tres fin, fort épais, long tout au plus d'un pouce, et c'est celui qu'on met en œuvre; 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'sCyclopædia, 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'sJourney 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'sTravels 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'sAdventures of Captain Bonneville, vol. ii., p. 17, 19; vol. iii., p. 267, 272; H. Murray'sBritish 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'sJourney round the World, vol. i., p. 159; Weld, p. 411.
"The rattle is usually about half an inch in breadth, one quarter of an inch in thickness, and each joint about half an inch long. The joint consists of a number of little cases of a dry, horny substance, inclosed one within another; and not only the outermost of these little cases articulates with the outermost case of the contiguous joint, but each case, even to the smallest one of all, at the inside, is connected by a sort of joint with the corresponding case in the next joint of the rattle. The little cases or shells lie very loosely within one another, and the noise proceeds from their dry and hard coats striking one against the other. It is said that the animal joins a fresh joint to its rattle every year. Of this, however, I have great doubts; for the largest snakes are frequently found to have the fewest joints to their rattles. A medical gentleman in the neighborhood of Newmarket had a rattle in his possession which contained no less than thirty-two joints; yet the snake from which it was taken scarcely measured five feet. Rattlesnakes, however, of the same kind, and in the same part of the country, have been found of a greater length with not more than ten rattles."—Weld, p. 409.
"Man or animals bitten by the rattlesnake expire in extreme agony; the tongue swells to an enormous size, the blood turns black, and, all the extremities becoming cold, gangrene ensues, and is speedily succeeded by death. The remedies in common use are thePolygala senecaorAristolochia serpentaria, employed as a decoction. Sometimes scarification, or cauterizing the wound with a burning iron, if immediate in their application, is attended with success. The Indians' favorite remedy is sucking the wound, which in a slight bite is generally successful. Mr. Catesby, by traveling much among the Indians, had frequent opportunities of seeing the direful effects of the bite inflicted by these snakes. He seems to consider that the success of any remedy is owing more to the force of nature or to the slightness of the bite than to any other cause. He has known persons bitten to survive without assistance for many hours; but where a rattlesnake with full force penetrates with his deadly fangs into a vein or artery, inevitable death ensues, and that, as he has often seen, in less than two minutes. The Indians, for this reason, know their destiny directly they are bit, and when they perceive it is mortal, apply no remedy, concluding all efforts in vain. From experiments made in Carolina by Captain Hall, and related in the Philosophical Transactions, it appears that a rattlesnake of about four feet long, being fastened to a stake in the ground, bit three dogs, the first of which died in less than a quarter of a minute; the second, which was bitten a short time afterward, in about two hours, in convulsions; and the third, which was bitten about half an hour afterward, showed the visible effects of the poison in about three hours, and died likewise. Four days after this, another dog was bitten, which died in half a minute; and then another, which died in four minutes. A cat which was bitten was found dead the next day. The experiments having been discontinued some time, from want of subjects, a common black-snake was procured, which was healthy and vigorous, and about three feet long. It was brought to the rattlesnake, when they bit each other, the black-snake biting the rattlesnake so as to make it bleed. They were then separated, and in less than eight minutes the black-snake died, while the rattlesnake, on the contrary, showed no signs of indisposition, appearing as well as before. Lastly, in order to try whether the rattlesnake could poison itself, it was provoked to bite itself: the experiment succeeded, and the animal expired in less than twelve hours."—Rees'sCyclopædia, art. Crotalus.
Charlevoix says that "La morsure du Serpent à Sonnettes est mortelle, si on n'y rémédie sur-le-champ; mais la Providence y a pourvu. Dans tous les endroits, où se rencontre ce dangereux reptile, il croît une plante à laquelle on a donné le nom d'Herbe à Serpent à Sonnettes (Bidens Canadensis) et dont la racine est un antidote sûr contre le venin de cet animal.... Il est rare que le serpent à sonnettes attaque les passans qui ne lui cherchent point nuire. J'eu ai en un à mes pieds qui eut assurément plus de peur que moi, car je ne l'aperçus que quand il fuyoit."—Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 235.
"Archdeacon Burnaby was told by a planter in Virginia that he had one day provoked a rattlesnake to such a degree as to make it strike a small vine which grew close by, and the vine presently drooped and died."—Burnaby'sTravels in North America, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 724.
"The rattlesnake has two fangs, which are concealed in a sheath, one at each side of the upper jaw. They are curved in their shape, and their point is as sharp as that of a common needle. They are hollow in the center, and the roots of the fangs are connected with the poison bags. These reptiles generally use only one fang at a time, and when they do use it, they seize with their mouth the part which they intend to poison, then perforate it deeply with the fang. At this moment the bag contracts, and the deleterious fluid, which has such an enmity to the blood, is injected into the very bottom of the wound, through a small aperture in the under part of the fang, at a short distance from the sharp point. Having effected his purpose, he withdraws the instrument, and leaves his victim to his fate. He does not seem to feel pain at the moment, and generally for the first five minutes he appears to be perfectly well. At the end of this period, however, the ears begin to droop; he seems giddy and uneasy; the lower extremities soon lose their power; he falls on the ground; the pupils dilate; slight convulsions come on; and the animal dies, generally, in about fifteen minutes from the time that the poison had been injected into the wound. When we examine the part immediately after death, we find that the poison has completely destroyed the red color of the blood; and not only of this, but for two inches all round the puncture, the muscular fibers, and even the cellular substance, are as black as if they had been for hours in a state of complete mortification. When the muriate of soda (common salt) is immediately applied to the wound, it is a complete antidote. When an Indian is bitten by a snake, he applies a ligature above the part, and scarifies the wound to the very bottom; he then stuffs it with common salt, and after this it soon heals, without producing any effect on the general system. (The ligature may be the efficacious remedy, intercepting the current of blood to the heart, and consequently preventing the action of the poison upon that vital organ.) A rabbit, under the influence of the rattlesnake poison, has been seen to drink a saturated solution of muriate of soda and soon recover, while healthy rabbits would not taste a drop of the same saline water."—Stevens'sObservations on the Properties of the Blood, p. 137, 315.
"I was with the Hon. Esquire Boyle when he made certain experiments of curing the bite of vipers with certain East India snake-stones, that were sent him by King James II., purposely to have him try their virtue and efficacy. For that end he got some brisk vipers, and made them bite certain pullets; he applied nothing to one of the pullets, and it died within three minutes and a half; but I think they all recovered to whom he applied the snake-stones, though they turned wonderful pale, their combs drooped immediately, and the next morning all their flesh was turned green to a wonder; nevertheless, they recovered by degrees."—Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. iii., p. 345.
No. XLI.
"It is an unquestionable fact, that the copper-colored man can not endure the spread of European civilization in his neighborhood, but perishes in its atmosphere, without suffering from ardent spirits, epidemics, or war, as if touched by a poisonous breath." Thus writes Mr. Poeppig, a German naturalist, who has resided for some years in South America; and he proceeds to compare the substitution of the one race for the other, with the destruction of the first growth of low vegetation in the recently-formed islands of the Pacific by the vigorous crop of forest trees which succeeds it.—Encyclopædiaof Erz and Gruber, art. Indici.
Thus also writes the philosophical traveler, Mr. Darwin: "Besides several evident causes of destruction, there appears to be some more mysterious agency at work. Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the aboriginal. We may look to the wide extent of the Americas, Polynesia, the Cape of Good Hope, and Australia, and we shall find the same result. Nor is it the white man alone that thus acts the destroyer. The Polynesian of Malay extraction has, in parts of the East Indian Archipelago, thus driven before him the dark-colored native. The varieties of man seem to act upon each other in the same way as different species of animals, the stronger always extirpating the weaker. It was melancholy at New Zealand to hear the fine, energetic natives saying, 'They knew the land was doomed to pass from their children.'"
Sir Richard Bourke writes thus to Lord Glenelg respecting New Zealand (1837): "Disease and death prevail even among those natives who, by their adherence to the missionaries, have received only benefit from the English connection, and even the very children, who are reared under the care of the missionaries, are swept off in a ratio which promises, at no very distant period, to leave the country destitute of a single aboriginal inhabitant. The natives are perfectly sensible of this decrease, and when they contrast their own condition with that of the English families, they conceive that the God of the English is removing the aboriginal inhabitants to make room for them; and it appears to me that this impression has produced among them a very general unhappiness and indifference to life."
Sir Francis Head justified the sweeping measures of removal[227]contemplated during his administration of Canada, by asserting his belief in the same mysterious certainty of the aboriginals' extirpation. "We may as well endeavor to make the setting sun stand still on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, as attempt to arrest the final extermination of the Indian race."—See Merivale'sLectures on Colonization, No. 19 (delivered before the University of Oxford in 1839, 1840, and 1841), in which he objects to the truth of the facts on which the above statements are founded, in so far as they are supposed to involve any mysterious influence of the white over the copper-colored races. "Perhaps I may venture to attribute some of the coloring (of the foregoing statements) to that taste for fanciful analogies, and speculations partaking of the mysterious, in which natural philosophers are apt to indulge when they apply their knowledge to subjects not immediately within their province. When we find one race of animals, or one class of vegetation, extirpating another, there is nothing inexplicable in the succession of cause and effect. The stronger destroys the weaker by natural agencies: animals become the prey of newly-imported indigenous ones, or their food is destroyed by the multiplication of the latter: the seeds of one class of vegetables can not spring where a stronger growth has established itself, and so forth. What is there in these or similar processes analogous to the supposed mysterious influence of the mere contact of one family of the human race upon another? If it be true that the mere presence of a white population is sufficient to cause the Red Indians or the Polynesians to dwindle and decay, without any assignable agency of the one or the other, it must be confessed that this is an anomaly in the laws of Providence utterly unexplained by all our previous knowledge, wholly at variance with all the other laws by which animal life and human society are governed."—Vol. ii., p. 206.