BEAVER

Natures greatest engineer – the beaver, builder of the first American dam. While man is often annoyed by his interference with water power, his dams pile up rich soil deposits which become fertile fields. The Indians were so awed by the beaver’s sagacity that they credited him with the power of speech. Certain tribes even believed man descended from the beaver.

Beaver was the lure which led early explorers along the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. Trading posts thus established resulted in extending the boundaries of the New World. Beaver was the backbone of early American commerce – the basis of exchange.

The beaver pelt is one of the warmest. Its long dense Fur combines richness or coloring and beauty of texture with wearing qualities few Furs can challenge. The superior beaver, so rich a brown that in some lights it appears blue and in others golden, comes from the Hudson Bay district. There he grows a particularly luxuriant pelt as protection against the icy waters.

While the natural coloring is superb and beaver is therefore rarely dyed, the long guard-hairs which protected the velvety under Fur from water are almost always plucked. As a result beaver Fur has a tendency to mat and curl when exposed to repeated dampness, and should be restored to its silken state as soon as possible. Beaver pelts go through ninety-eight handlings before they reach the manufacturers; but the finished product amply repays the labor.