Canadian Wilds: Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.Hunter, Martin
History
Canadian Wilds: Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc.
Hunter, Martin
Hudson's Bay Company; Hunting -- Canada
By three o'clock in the afternoon we had the beavers all killed, two
old and four young ones. We really had five by dinner time, so we lit
a fire, boiled our kettle and let the last old one quiet down a bit
while we ate our lunch. We got him at last in the last "wash," and I
suppose knowing this was his last stand he would not attempt to leave
the back part of the hole no matter how much I poked the chisel in
about him. So while the Indian kept a close and alert watch at the
mouth of the "wash," I made a large opening at the back and slipped
in one of the dogs. In a moment beaver and dog were both out at the
entrance fighting in the water. The beaver fastened his terrible
teeth in the dog's lip. The Indian and I each managed to grasp a hind
leg, a long pull and out came beaver and dog together. We had to
force his teeth apart after killing him before the dog was free.
* * *
I mentioned in a previous article that I would at some future time
tell of the part a beaver-dam enacts in the successful shooting of
the beaver.
As I said, the beaver has to keep a jealous watch on the dam to
preserve the proper height of the water at their lodge. They make
nightly visits to see all is well, just as a faithful watchman goes
his rounds of the factory over which he has charge.
Any sudden falling of water brings the beaver down post haste to the
dam to repair the damage or leak. Often an otter is the cause of the
trouble, as they sometimes bore a passage way under the discharge,
thereby letting out a large quantity of water in a very short while.
The Indians, knowing this careful watchfulness of the beaver, use it
to his destruction by purposely breaking a portion of the dam and
hiding, await the coming of the little builders, shooting them at
close range.
I cannot do better than to describe one of these shootings, in which
I took part.
One of the principal things to observe is that the wind should be in
the proper direction, i. e., from the lodge toward the dam. A day
coming when the condition of the wind was favorable, we set off with
our double-barrel guns, a tea kettle and some grub, and reached the
discharge about 3 P. M.
The little pond was brimming full with the proper quantity of water,
flowing out of the cut to insure a regular equality. The Indian
studied all this, looked at the sun, and decided it was yet too early
to cut the dam, and in the meantime we fixed a nice brush cache at
different angles to the dam, wherein we were to sit and watch. About
four o'clock the Indian hacked away at the discharge with a small
pointed stick, prying several holes under and about it, and in a
short time the creek below the dam became a highly turbulent stream,
and then we retired to our bedded places and waited.
I might mention that the time of the year was about the tenth of
October, a time when beaver are quite prime, in that north country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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