Adriaen van der Donck

“ The food of the beaver is not, as some suppose, fish and prey like the otter's; to which end the beaver has been described and delineated with a fish in its mouth, and to be part fish and part flesh. It feeds on the bark of several kinds of wood, on roots, rushes and greens, which it finds in the woods, fields and bushes, near the water sides. The kinds of bark whereon it feeds, are of the water willow, birch, and maple trees, which grow plentifully near the water sides, and of all other trees, which are not sour or bitter to the taste, which they dislike. ”

“ When they are taken very young they require milk, which they readily learn to suck from a rag-teat, out of a horn. They are gentle to handle as a young dog, and will not get cross or bite. When grown they are fond of the water, and will sport and play in a stream with astonishing agility; and if they are not confined in locked waters, by going into streams every day they stroll away and become wild, and do not return again, like the deer, which also can be made very tame.
The doctors of medicine, as before related, ascribe many medicinal virtues to the beaver cods, which they name castorium. ”

“ The beaver tails excel all other flesh taken on land and in the water. Wherefore the Indians deem it a special favour to permit us to partake with them of a part of a beaver's tail; and they will seldom part with any beaver flesh. The most of the settlers in the New-Netherlands have never tasted it but the best and most excellent part of a beaver is its tail. The Indians will seldom part with it, unless on an extraordinary occasion as a present. ”

“ This happened when the hunter's dog and a beaver were striving for the mastery, and the hunter stooped down to help his dog; when the beaver missing the dog probably, in terror and misery, bit the hunter in his shoulder.
That the beavers are subtle animals appears by the construction of their houses, and in rearing their young, which we will presently relate, with their continual watch, which they keep to prevent surprise and being taken; which, we are informed, they keep at every house, for the beavers commonly have six or seven in a family in every house, at which they in turn keep watch. ”

“ I have frequently eaten beaver flesh, and have raised and kept their young. I have also handled and exchanged many thousand skins.
A beaver is a four footed animal that feeds on vegetables, and keeps in water and on land, coated with fur and hair, short-legged, quick, timid and subtle, and commonly as thick as it is long. The Greek name of this animal is castor, the Latin is eyber [1] the Dutch is beever. The other names by which it is known in Europe, are mostly derived from the foregoing. It has feet like the otter, or like other wild and tame creatures which keep on land. ”

“ In the water they obtain a scanty subsistence from the bark of roots of trees which extend into the water from the margin of the water courses, and the weeds and bushes which grow in some places, but mostly on the margin of the water. The true and certain reason why the beavers keep so much in the water arises from their natural timidity, which is supported by the testimony of the great beaver catchers. Being naturally timid, the creature can best preserve and secure itself much better and easier in the water than on land. ”

“ The beaver tails are flattish, without hair, coated with a skin which appears as if set with fish scales, and when chopped up with the flesh of the beaver, it is a delicate food, and is always preserved for the Emperor's table, whenever a beaver is caught in Germany, which seldom happens. ”

“ Their houses, as Sextius, Albertus, and Olaus say, they construct always over a running stream, with several stories, four, five, or more, above each other, of curious workmanship, and worthy of speculation. Every apartment and story in their houses is made perfectly tight with wood, grass and clay to the top, which keeps out the rain. They lodge in those houses in whole families, and parts of families, and break out like bees, with their increase when disturbed. ”

“ The doctor and all present pronounced the articles real beaver testicles. After I had related to them the whole procedure, they were amazed, but adhered to their first opinion, and that the same were the real beaver castor cods. Afterwards I have opened more beavers with the like result; therefore, without prejudice to the feelings of any person, I am decidedly of opinion, that the real castorium is found in the females and not in the males. The round balls of the males the Indians carve fine, and suck much with their tobacco: it is healthy and well tasted. ”

“ It is certain that when it freezes hard, which it frequently does where the most and best beavers resort, there always sits one, not as Albertus and Magnus assert, with half of the body in the water (for this would be impossible in severe frost) . The beaver can keep above water without pain, which they nevetherless on the contrary feel; but I assert that one of the family always sits near the running water, for they always build on running waters, that with the striking of their tails they keep it open ”

“ Still when they are beset and bitten by dogs, they can defend themselves very well, and do great injury to a common dog, when they take hold of the same with their foreteeth; but as to their attacking men with violence, it is erroneous. I have seen and conversed with hundreds of beaver hunters, but have never known more than one who had been bitten by a beaver in his shoulder and received a bad wound. ”

“ From the beaver fur, or wool, the best hats are made that are worn, which are named beavers or castoreums, after the materials from which the same are made, being at present known over all Europe. Outside of the coat of fur many shining hairs appear, which are called wind hairs, that more properly are winter hairs, for those fall out in summer and appear again in the fall. This outer coat is of a chestnut brown colour --- the browner the better --- it sometimes will be somewhat reddish. When hats are made of the fur, the rough hairs are plucked out, being useless. ”

“ The beavers are so quick, that they not only can run wonderfully over the earth, when we consider their formation, avoiding men and dogs; but in the water they seem as active as fishes. Therefore the Indians must take them in traps; or when they lay in their burrows in the earth, they know how to take and kill them with long rammers (which have lances affixed at the ends) inserted at the holes of their burrows. That the beavers according to the meaning of Olaus Magnus and Albertus, will be inclined to bite and wound persons dreadfully, is a mistake ”

“ The wood used in the construction of their houses is of the soft kind, such as maple, pine, white-wood, &c. which they find laying along the water courses. When this supply is insufficient, they have recourse to the nearest trees, which is done as follows. When a beaver intends to fell a tree, it selects one of a proper size, of about six inches diameter, the bark of which is not bad tasted. The beaver then begins cutting with its front teeth, of which it has two in the upper and two in the lower jaw; very strong and about half an inch long, more or less, according to its age. ”

“ The beaver like the swine goes with young sixteen weeks; they bear once a year and in summer, some earlier than others, and have four in a litter, except at the first, when they sometimes have but two or three. ”

“ The dead beaver resembles a dead mole which is somewhat flattened with the foot.
When full grown, the skins are about an ell long and an ell broad; they are not round, but frequently nearly square. From this size up to five quarters, the skins are merchantable they are seldom larger. From December to the first of June, the skins are good, and then they are killed. The fall skins have the winter hairs in part, with very little fur. The summer skins and those taken from ungrown beavers are of little value. Still the Indians kill all they find when they are hunting. ”

“ The hinder part of the body is short, much like that of a goose or swan. The forefeet (as the creature has a short neck, or is almost without a neck, the head being near the shoulders) stand near the head, Therefore when they run, which they do with great activity, their whole body appears to touch the ground and appears to be too heavy for their small short legs : but far from it, they are well provided by nature with strong sinews and muscles and are very strong. ”

“ Two quarts of the oil, mixed with polay-water, will restore the menses to women, and remove the second birth, Beaver oil is good for dizziness, for trembling, for the rheumatism, for lameness, for the pain in the stomach, and for apoplexy, when the stomach is greased with it. ”

“ Whether they look up when the tree falls, to observe its direction, I have never heard. But I have seen many trees which had been cut down by the beavers, that had fallen fast against trees that stood near by, that were left by the animals. After a tree has fallen down, they then gnaw off the wood into proper lengths for their work. ”

“ They carry the wood together, and nearly all the inhabitants of the New-Netherlands know that many skins are sold from which the outside wind hairs are worn off on the back, which are called wood-carriers' skins, because they carried wood for the construction of their houses ”

“ With those teeth, which are common to the squirrels and other animals, they commence gnawing, making a cut of about a hand's breadth or more around the tree, which they work at until the tree falls, and then the ends resemble the turned whip-tops, used by children. ”