in various respects, both for their safety
and food. For their safety, as by raising the water over the mouths of
their holes, or subterraneous lodging places, they could not be easily
found; and as the beaver feeds chiefly on the barks of trees, by raising
the water over the banks, they can cut down saplings for bark to feed
upon, without going out much upon the land; and when they are obliged to
go out upon land for this food they frequently are caught by the wolves.
As the beaver can run upon land but little faster than a water tortoise,
and is no fighting animal, if they are any distance from the water they
become an easy prey to their enemies."

The Indians caught great numbers of beavers by hunting and trapping. In
the winter time when they found the beavers in their houses, they first
broke up all the thin ice around about, and then by breaking into the
houses, drove the beavers into the water. Being soon forced to come to
the surface to take the air, the Indians commonly reached in and caught
them by the hind legs, dragged them out on the ice and tomahawked them.
Not only were the furs and skins utilized, but the flesh as well. Smith
describes the meat as being a "delicious fare." In the days before the
savages were corrupted by the French and English traders, they possessed
a wonderful skill in dressing the skins of the buffalo, the bear and the
beaver. Beaver and raccoon skin blankets were made "pliant, warm and
durable." Says Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, "They sew together
as many of these skins as are necessary, carefully setting the hair or
fur all the same way, so that the blanket or covering be smooth, and the
rain do not penetrate, but run off."

In the later days, however, the beaver proved to be more of a curse than
a blessing. The Indian then wore the European blanket, and bartered his
valuable furs away for whiskey and brandy. The riotous scenes of
drunkenness, debauchery and murder became unspeakable. To Detroit the
Indians swarmed from the shores of Erie and all the rivers in the
interior. Hunting for weeks and months and enduring privation, suffering
and toil, they came in at last with their women and children to buy
rifles, ammunition and clothing. Here mingled the Miami, the Potawatomi,
the Ottawa and the Wyandot; a motley gathering of all the tribes. In the
end the result was always the same, and always pitiful. The traders came
with the lure of fire water, and when they departed the I