lake Nipissing.
It has been observed that this mountain, viewed from one side,
naturally enough represents the figure of a beaver, which circumstance
has, no doubt, occasioned all these tales. The Indians, however,
stoutly maintain that it was the Great Beaver who gave this form to
the mountain after he had made choice of it for his burial-place, and
they never pass by it without rendering him their homage by offering
him the smoke of their tobacco.

(2) _White Beaver._--p. 49.

It has been asserted by travellers, that there is a species of the
beaver perfectly white. I doubt the story much. If there were white
beavers they would be found in the polar regions, yet it is a fact
that there they are quite black. Their colour, in temperate
countries, is brown, and it becomes lighter and lighter in proportion
as they approach toward the south, yet no where becomes white.

(3) _Carcajous and Foxes make war in company._--p. 55.

The carcajou, or wild cat, is the natural enemy of the elk, which, by
the by, has become almost as rare an animal on the western continent
as the mastodon or mammoth. As soon as he comes up with the elk, he
leaps upon him, and fastens upon his neck, about which he twists his
long tail, and then cuts his jugular. The elk has no means of shunning
this disaster, but by flying to the water the moment he is seized by
this dangerous enemy. The carcajou, who cannot endure the water, quits
his hold immediately; but, if the water happen to be at too great a
distance, he will destroy the elk before he reaches it. As this hunter
does not possess the faculty of smelling with the greatest acuteness,
he carries with him three foxes, which he sends on the discovery. The
moment they have got scent of an elk, two of them place themselves by
his side, and the third takes post behind him. They manage the matter
with so much adroitness, that they compel him to go to the place where
they have left the carcajou, with whom they afterwards settle about
dividing the prey. At least so say the Indians.

(4) _Made them more than a match._--p. 55.

The North American Indians are the vainest people living. "As ignorant
as a white man," "as foolish as a white man," are common expressions
with them. As they only value physical greatness, their low opinion of
us proceeds from their observing how very deficient we are in the
qualities which confer that species of superiority. They value,
beyond every other acquirement, that of