The beaver (ammisk) furnish the staple fur of the country.  Many surprising stories have been told of the sagacity with which this animal suits the form of its habitation, retreats, and dam, to local circumstances; and I compared the account of its manners given by Cuvier in his Regne Animal with the reports of the Indians and found them to agree exactly.  They have been often seen in the act of constructing their houses in the moonlight nights, and the observers agree that the stones, wood, or other materials are carried in their teeth and generally leaning against the shoulder.  When they have placed it to their mind they turn round and give it a smart blow with their flat tail.  In the act of diving they give a similar stroke to the surface of the water.  They keep their provision of wood under water in front of the house.  Their favourite food is the bark of the aspen, birch and willow; they also eat the alder, but seldom touch any of the pine tribe unless from necessity; they are fond of the large roots of the Nuphar lutea, and grow fat upon it but it gives their flesh a strong rancid taste.  In the season of love their call resembles a groan, that of the male being the hoarsest, but the voice of the young is exactly like the cry of a child.  They are very playful as the following anecdote will show:  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 betwixt their gestures and the infantile caresses of his own children that he threw aside his gun.  This gentleman’s feelings are to be envied but few traders in fur would have acted so feelingly.  The muskrat frequently inhabits the same lodge with the beaver and the otter also thrusts himself in occasionally; the latter however is not always a civil guest as he sometimes devours his host.

These are the animals most interesting in an economical point of view.  The American hare and several kinds of grouse and ptarmigan also contribute towards the support of the natives; and the geese, in their periodical flights in the spring and autumn, likewise prove a valuable resource both to the Indians and white residents; but the principal article of food after the moose-deer is fish; indeed it forms almost the sole support of the traders at some of the posts.  The most esteemed fish is the Coregonus albus, the attihhawmeg of the Crees and the white-fish of the Americans.  Its usual weight is between three and four pounds, but it has been known to reach sixteen or eighteen pounds.  Three fish of the ordinary size is the daily allowance to each man at the fort and is considered as equivalent to two geese or eight pounds of solid moose-meat.  The fishery for the attihhawmeg lasts the whole year but is most productive