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's Cyclopædia, 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 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's Cyclopædia, 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.