"If you please, Uncle Thomas."

"Very well. I must first tell you that the skin of the Beaver is most
valuable during winter, as the fur is then thicker and finer than during
the summer. They are therefore very little if at all molested during
summer by the hunters. When winter sets in, however, and the lakes and
rivers are frozen over, a party of hunters set out to seek for the
beaver colonies, and, having found them, they make a number of holes in
the ice. Having done this and concerted measures, they break down the
huts, and the animals instantly get into the water as a place of safety.
As they cannot remain long under water, however, they have soon occasion
to come to the surface to breathe, and of course make for the holes
which the hunters have formed in the ice, when the latter, who are
waiting in readiness, knock them on the head."

"But, Uncle Thomas, don't you think it is very cruel to kill the beaver
so? I believe it feeds entirely on vegetables, and does no harm to any
one."

"You might say the same, John, of the sheep on the downs; the one is not
more cruel than the other: both are useful to man, and furnish him with
food as well as raiment, and both were, of course, included in the
'dominion' which God originally gave to man 'over the beasts of the
field.'"

"Is the beaver used for food, then, Uncle Thomas?"

"It is, and except during a small part of the year, when it feeds on the
root of the water-lily, which communicates a peculiar flavour to the