From this animal were prepared many remedies which in former times were believed to have high medicinal value. Castoreum was the most popular of these, and from it was compounded the great cure-all. The skin of the beaver was thought to be an excellent preventive of colic and consumption; the fat of the beaver efficient in apoplexy and epilepsy, to stop spasms, and for various afflictions of the nerves. Powdered beaver teeth were often given in soup for the prevention of many diseases. The castoreum of the beaver was considered a most efficient remedy for earache, deafness, headache, and gout, for the restoring of the memory and the cure of insanity. Next in importance to its skin, the beaver was valued for the castoreum it yielded.
The old hunters, trappers, and first settlers forecast with confidence the weather from the actions of the beaver. This animal was credited with being weather-wise to a high degree. From his actions the nature of the oncoming winter was predicted, and plans to meet it were made accordingly. Faith in the beaver’s actions and activities as a basis for weather-forecasting was almost absolute. If the beaver began work early, the winter was to begin early. If the beaver laid up a large harvest, covered the house deeply with mud, and raised the water-level of the pond, the winter was, of course, to be a long and severe one.
Extensive autumn rambles in the mountains with especial attention to beaver customs compels me to conclude that as a basis for weather prediction beaverdom is not reliable. In the course of one autumn month in the mountains of Colorado more than one hundred colonies were observed. In many colonies work for the winter commenced early. In others, only a few miles distant, preparations for the winter did not begin until late. In some, extensive preparations were made for the winter. In a few the harvest laid up was exceedingly small. Thus in one month of the same year I saw some beaver colonies preparing for a long winter and others for a short one, many preparing for a hard winter and others almost unprepared for winter. From these varied and conflicting prognostications, how was one accurately to forecast the coming winter? The old prophets in one colony frequently disagreed with aged prophets who were similarly situated, but in a neighboring colony. At one place thirty or more beaver gathered an enormous quantity of food, sufficient, in fact, to have supplied twice that number for the longest and most severe winter. The winter which followed was as mild a one as had passed over the Rocky Mountains in fifty years. Not one tenth of the big food-pile was eaten.
I have not detected anything that indicates that the beaver ever plan for an especially hard winter. Goodly preparations are annually made for winter. Apparently the extent of the preparation in any colony is dependent almost entirely upon the number of beaver that are to winter in that colony. Winter preparations consist of gathering the food-harvest, repairing and sometimes raising the dam, and commonly covering the house with a layer of mud. Beaver display forethought, intelligence, and even wisdom, but being weather-wise is not one of their successful specialties. Local beaver now and then show unusual activity, and unusually large supplies are gathered and stored for the winter. This kind of work appears to be local, not general. The cases in which unusually large preparations were made for the winter could have been traced to an increased population of the colony that showed these activities. On the other hand, colonies with less preparations one year than on the preceding one probably had suffered a decrease of population. Increase of population in a beaver colony may be accounted for through the growing up of youngsters, or by the arrival of immigrants, or both; where the temporary inactivity of trappers in one locality might allow the beaver colony in that region to increase in numbers; or where the beaver population of that colony might be increased by the arrival of beaver driven from their homes by aggressive hunters and trappers in adjoining localities. At any rate, in the beaver world, some colonies each year commence work earlier than do others, and some colonies make extensive preparations for the winter, while others make but little preparation. This preparation appears to be determined chiefly by the number of colonists and the needs of the colony.
The beaver hastened, if it did not bring, the settlement of the country. Hunters and trappers blazed the trails, described the natural resources, and lured the permanent settlers to possess the land and build homes among the ruins left by the beaver. Early in the fur industry companies were formed, the Hudson’s Bay Company becoming the most influential and best known. Its charter was granted by Charles II of England on the 2d day of May, 1669. This company finally developed into one of the greatest commercial enterprises that America has ever known. The skin of the beaver furnished more than half its revenue. There are many features in the history of this company that have never been surpassed in any land. For more than two hundred years it held absolute sway over a country larger than Europe, and for the first one hundred and fifty years of its existence it was the government of the territory where it ruled, and thus determined the social and other standards of life within that territory. One of the early officials of this company declared that they were on the ground ahead of the missionaries, and said that the initials “H. B. C.” on the banner of the company might well be interpreted as “Here before Christ.”
Kingsford’s History of Canada says that in the eighteenth century, Canada exported a moderate quantity of timber, wheat, the herb called ginseng, and a few other commodities, but from first to last she lived chiefly on beaver skins. Horace T. Martin, formerly Secretary of Agriculture for Canada, calls the beaver’s part in Canadian development “a subject which has from the inception of civilization been associated with the industrial and commercial development, and indirectly with the social life, the romance, and to a considerable extent with the wars of Canada.”
The American Fur Company and the Northwestern Fur Company were two large fur-gathering enterprises whose trappers ranged afar and who left their mark in the history and the development of the Northwest. The colossal Astor fortune really had its beginning in the wealth which John Jacob Astor amassed chiefly through the gathering and the sale of beaver skins. Beaver skins are now economically unimportant in commerce, but their value has already led to the establishment of a few beaver farms.
To-day beaver are apparently extinct over the greater portion of the area which they formerly occupied, and are scarce over the remaining inhabited area. Scattered colonies are found in the Rocky Mountains and in the mountains of the Pacific Coast, and there are localities in Canada where they are still fairly abundant. In many places in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado they are common. A few are found in Michigan and Maine. Some years ago a few brooks in the Adirondacks were successfully colonized with these useful animals. They have reappeared in Pennsylvania, and there probably are straggling beaver all over the United States which, if protected, would increase.
There is a growing sentiment in favor of allowing the beaver to multiply. In 1877 Missouri passed a law protecting these animals; so did Maine in 1885 and Colorado in 1899. Other States to the total number of twenty-four have also legislated for their protection. The Canadian government has also passed protective laws. A noticeable increase has already occurred in a few localities. Beaver multiply rapidly under protection, as is shown in the National Parks of both Canada and the United States.