Grades of Beaver

castor gras (oily beaver): beaver robes worn by the Indians for a great length of time

castor sec (dry beaver): beaver skins not previously worn, with the guard hair still on them and the fur lacking the downy character of castor gras

demi-gras d'hiver (winter half-oily): robes which the Indians were beginning to wear, and of which the skins were beginning to turn yellow--a poorer grade of beaver skin

castor gras d'été (summer oily beaver): robes which were made of skins taken in summer with very little fur, and thick pelts

castor veule (thin beaver): robes which had been scraped thin and treated, but not worn, of which the skins were white and very light

castor sec d'hiver (winter dry beaver) or bardeau (clapboard): beaver skins taken in winter which had not been made into robes, because of holes and imperfections and which were, as a result, badly prepared and very coarse

castor sec d'été (summer dry beaver): skins taken in summer

muscovie veule (thin Muscovy): beaver skins taken in winter without damage, which had large excellent fur and long hair, and was carefully prepared for the trade in Russia

mitaines (mittens) and rognures (trimmings): small pieces used for making sleeves and mittens

NOTE: The concept of beaver skins should not be reduced solely to the item itself unless one is referring to it as a commodity and its role in the fur trade as part of the first valorization scheme in North America. Beaver skins, at least the castor gras, were worn by Indians before they were traded to the French. In other words, gras (oily) refers to the suppleness of the beaver skin rendered after long contact with the skin of an Indian wearing it. The Indians at first were puzzled by the traders' desire for worn-out beaver robes.

Innis makes it quite clear in his masterful work, The Fur Trade in Canada, that the Indians were the first consumers in North America. They valued the goods they received from the French and English, especially those made of iron.

Can we consider the manufacture of discarded beaver robes into hats in Europe as the first instance of recycling?

Processing Beaver Fur

Skinning (Figure 11)

The feet and tail should be removed at the hairline with a small axe or by cutting with a knife to separate the tail vertebrae and leg bones. A cut is then made through the skin from the base of the tail up the belly to the center of the lower lip. Care must be taken to avoid cutting into the muscle tissue and opening up the body cavity. The outer two inches of the pelt are "clean skinned" by cutting away connective tissue and fat from the pelt. The rest of the belly skin is removed by cutting more quickly, leaving more muscle and fat on the pelt ("rough skinning").

With the feet removed, it is easier to skin around the stump ends by pushing them up with the last three fingers while rolling the skin held between the thumb and index finger downward. The beaver can now be rolled on its side and the pelt cut away to the center of the back from neck to tail. The skinned half of the pelt is laid back over the carcass and the beaver is turned around on the skinning table. The other half of the pelt is "rough skinned', in the same manner as the first half. The carcass is then laid on its belly and the pelt lifted and cut away from the base of the tail toward the head. Skinning the head requires several careful cuts around the eyes and ears. The pelt should be hung up and allowed to dry in a cool area. "Rough skinned" beaver pelts can be frozen and thawed out later to be fleshed and dried. The pelts should be folded over, fur side to fur side, and put into individual plastic bags.

The grayish castor glands located directly in front of the anus are used in the perfume and lure industry and are worth saving. They are easily removed by making one cut across the abdomen just above the glands. The glands can be peeled away from connective tissue keeping the connection between the two glands intact and hung over a wire to dry for about 10 days. They are sold by dried weight and can be sold along with the fur.

Figure 11. When skinning beaver properly, you must first remove the feet and tail at the hairline, and then make one cut through the skin from the base of the tail up the belly to the center of the lower lip.

The next step in processing a beaver pelt is to remove all the fat, muscle and connective tissue left from the rough skinning process. The pelt can be fleshed over a rounded and pointed fleshing beam. The fleshing beam is about 5 feet long and is anchored so it forms an angle of approximately 45 degrees between the floor and the chest of the individual doing the fleshing. Fleshing beams can be made quickly from butt end board slabs or 2 x 8 lumber. They can be made to taper gradually for use with a variety of furbearers or may be broader if used for beaver exclusively. Fleshing tools are available from trapper supply houses or a 10 to 12 inch carpenter's draw knife can be used.

Place the center of the back of the beaver pelt on the point of the fleshing beam (Figure 12). A towel or rag can be placed between the chest of the individual fleshing and the point of the beam to help hold the pelt in place. Starting from the tip of the beam, a swath of muscle and fat 1 to 3 inches wide should be cut from the center of the back down to the tail. The blade should be held at an angle so that the beveled surface is held almost parallel with the fleshing beam. Push the blade downwards and sideways to produce a slicing action. The pelt should be moved up frequently so all cutting is done near the pointed end of the fleshing beam. The pelt is then turned and a similar swath is removed from the center of the back to the nose and out to each side. Each quarter of the unfleshed pelt should then be fleshed clean. Care should be taken when fleshing the thin belly area and around the leg holes to avoid cutting the pelt. The fat tissue in these areas usually can be pushed away rather than cutting as is required for the back where thick fat and muscle tissue must be sliced away.

Figure 12. The beaver pelt is fleshed clean with downward slicing strokes of the fleshing tool starting from the center of the pelt.

Stretching and Drying Pelts (Figure 13)

Procedures used for stretching and drying beaver pelts vary with different trappers. The procedures described here have worked well in the past and require a minimum purchase of specialized equipment and materials.
After the pelt is fleshed and the fur has been allowed to dry, it is ready to be stretched. All that is needed is a 3 foot square sheet of 1/2 inch or thicker plywood, a ruler, nails and a hammer.

The pelt is hung up by the nose and measured from top to bottom. This distance plus half this distance plus 2 inches, totaled and divided by 2 should give you the diameter of the circle into which the pelt should stretch. An example is given below:

Pelt length	=	30	inches
	+	15	inches	(1/2 pelt length)
	=	45	inches
	+	2	inches
	=	47	inches
	÷	2		(divided by)
	=	23.5	inches
				(diameter of circle)

A circle of this diameter can be drawn on the board and the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions marked to provide a reference point for the first four nails. The pelt is then laid on the board fur side down and the nose and center of the tail nailed along the circle at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions. The sides are then nailed at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. The skin should be pulled and nailed at points midway between these and other nails until nails are spaced at approximately one inch intervals completely around the pelt. Any fat left around the leg holes should be removed and the leg holes closed up with 3 or 4 nails. The stretched pelt should be further scraped of any remaining fat with a curved knife blade or similar tool. Drying boards should be placed on end in a cool dry area at least 6 inches apart. Under favorable drying conditions, the skins should be dry enough to remove from the boards within 7 to 10 days. Drying time can be reduced to as little as 2 days if fans and artificial heat are used. Heaters should be used only to dry the air under humid conditions. Excessive heat and direct sunlight should be avoided to prevent pelt damage.

Figure 13. Beaver pelts should be switched into a circle when nailed to the drying board

Processing Beaver Fur

The night before last I had a dream of an evergreen or fir tree in the form of a bear. It was peering at me from its prominently hooded brow. That evening before going to bed I had glimpsed in the mirror my deep seated blue eyes as if I had seen them for the first time imperiously looking at me from the mirror. The next day at work a man came walking down the long corridor, a large man in a greenish blue flannel shirt, carrying a box in his arms. As he passed me by, I realized he was the green bear. 

Re: the effects of English competition on the French merchants in Quebec.

A letter from M. de Clairambault d'Aigremont to M. de Pontchartrain dated November 18, 1710:

The Coureurs de bois are useful in Canada for the fur trade, which is the sole branch that can be relied on, for it is certain that the articles [goods] required by the Upper Nations be not sent to Michilimackinac, [because] they will go in search of them to the English at Hudson's Bay, to whom they will convey all their peltries, and will detach themselves entirely from us, which would inflict a notable prejudice on that Colony [New France]. Experience sufficiently proves that it is not to be expected that these [Indian] nations will come in quest of them to Montreal; witness the few canoes that have come down within eight or nine years, except in 1708, when about 60 descended. When these Indians will be obliged to go to a great distance to get their necessaries, they will always go to the cheapest market; whereas, were they to obtain their supplies at their door, they would take them, whatever the price may be.

Re: the coureurs de bois

A letter from M. Du Chesneau to M. de Seignelay, dated November 13, 1681:

And in order, My Lord, that you may be convinced of it, permit me to inform you that there are two sorts of Coureurs de bois. The first go to the original haunts of the Beaver, among the Indian tribes of the Assinibouets, Nadoussieux, Miamis, Illinois and others, and these cannot kmake the trip in less than two or three years. The second, who are not so numerous, merely go so far as the Long Sault, Petite Nation, and sometimes to Michilimackinac, to meet the Indians and French who come down, in order to obtain, exclusively, their peltries, for which they carry goods to them, and sometimes nothing but Brandy contrary to the King's prohibition, with which they intoxicate and ruin them. The latter can make their trips in the time indicated to you, nearly, and even in a much shorter period. It is not easy to catch either the one or the other, unless we are assisted by disinterested persons; and, if favoured but ever so little, they easily receive intelligence and the woods and the rivers afford them great facilities to escape justice. This has occurred within four years.

Re: Sault Ste Marie's importance as gateway to Lake Superior and supply point for whitefish.

Galinée noted in 1670:

This fish is so cheap that they give ten or twelve of them for four fingers of tobacco. Each weighs six or seven pounds. . . . Meat is so cheap here that for a pound of glass beads I had four minots of fat entrails of moose, which is the best morsel of the animal. . . . It is at these places that one gets a beaver robe for a fathom of tobacco, sometimes for a quarter of a pound of powder, sometimes for six knives, sometimes for a fathom of small blue beads etc. This is the reason why the French go there, notwithstanding the frightful difficulties that are encountered.


The unit of measure called a finger

The minot is an old unit of dry volume, used in France prior to metrification. The unit was equivalent to three French bushels (boisseaux), half a mine, and one quarter of a setier.



Re: Michilimackinac as described by La Potherie:


the general meeting place for all the French who go to trade with stranger tribes; it is the landing place and refuge of all the savages who trade their peltries. . . . When they choose to work, they make canoes of birch bark which they sell two at three hundred livres each. They get a shirt for two sheets of bark for cabins. The sale of their French strawberries and other fruits produces means for procuring their ornaments. . . . They make a profit on everything.

Re: Michilimackinac ("Missilimackinac") as described by Lahontan in a letter dated May, 26, 1688:

The Coureurs de bois have but a very small settlement here: though at the same time 'tis not inconsiderable, as being the Staple of all the goods that they truck with the South and the West Savages, for they cannot avoid passing this way, when they go to the Seats of the Illinese [Illinois] and the Oumamis, or to the Bay des Puants, and to the River of Missisipi. The Skins which they import from these different places, must lye here some time before they are transported to the Colony.

Innis:
Because of the large profits of this trade [beaver skins], French traders, such as Radisson and Groseilliers, became interested in the western tribes [such as the Sioux]. As Radisson wrote, "for where that there is lucre, there are people enough to be had" (p. 56).

Le Jeune on the Hurons in 1637:

This year I have been present in some of their councils; they urged me to aid them with men; they also asked Monsieur, our Governor, to do this, saying that their country was being stripped of Elk and other animals, and that consequently, if the land could not furnish them a living, they would be utterly lost. In reply to this, they were told that the country was not yet in such condition that they would take away our Frenchmen for them, since we had not, as yet, enough cleared land for so many as we have here, which is very true. In other respects we are doing all we can to aid them.

Father C. Le Clercq on the beaver as the chief source of profit:

It is the great trade of New France. The Gaspesians say that the Beaver is the beloved of the French and of the other Europeans, who seek it greedily; and I have been unable to keep from laughing on overhearing an Indian, who said to me in banter, . . . "In truth, my brother, the Beaver does everything to perfection. He makes for us kettles, axes, swords, knives, and gives us drink and food without the trouble of cultivating the ground."

According to the Jesuit Relations of 1635:

But when the savages find a lodge of them, they kill all great and small, male and female. There is danger that they will exterminate the species in this region finally [around Three Rivers] as has happened among the Hurons, who have not a single beaver, going elsewhere to buy the skins they bring to the storehouse of these Gentlemen.

But, according to Innis in a note:

Lahontan mentions the profitable character of the beaver trade, in 1684, at Three Rivers.