derdonck declares that 80,000 beavers were killed annually in this part of the continent during his residence here, but this seems quite incredible. Dr. De Kay has found, in a letter of the Dutch West India Company, the records of the export of 14,891 skins in the year 1635. In ten years, the amount they exported was 80,103, the same number which the old chronicler declares were killed in one year. The flesh was considered the greatest of dainties by the Indians, the tail especially; and in this opinion others agreed with them, for it is said that whenever a beaver, by rare good luck, was caught in Germany, the tail was always reserved for the table of the Emperor. The Russians, it seems, were great admirers of beaver fur, and the New Netherlanders shipped their skins to that country, where they were used as trimmings, and then returned to the Dutch, after the hair had worn away by use, to be made into hats, for which they were better adapted in this condition than at first.
Otters are now very rare indeed; they were once very common on our streams. Their habits are much like those of the beaver, but they are decidedly larger, measuring from three to five feet in length. Their fur is valued next to the beaver for hats and caps, and is in great request, selling at eight dollars a skin. These animals have one very strange habit: it is said that they actually slide down hill on the snow, merely for amusement; they come down head foremost, and then, like so many boys, climb up for the pleasure of the slide down again. They will amuse themselves for hours in this way. And even in summer, they pursue the same diversion, choosing a steep bank by the side of a stream, which gives them a dip as they come down. One would like to see them at their play. “The Otter,” would be a very good
