ly eliminated from
history.

At the time of Braddock's defeat, Colonel James Smith, then a boy, was
captured by what seems to have been a party of the Caughnawaga Indians,
some of whom lived along the rivers and streams in northern Ohio. He
lived among the savages for some years and was adopted into one of their
families. Later in life, he left a written account of many of his
experiences, and among other things he tells us some interesting things
concerning the beavers. "Beavers," says Caleb Atwater, an Ohio
historian, "were once here in large numbers on the high lands at the
heads of the rivers, but with those who caught them, they have long
since disappeared from among us." Before the Revolution, and for some
years afterward, they were caught by the Indians in great numbers. Smith
had a valuable friend among the Indians by the name of Tecaughretanego.
He was quite a philosopher in his way, but he was rather inclined to
believe, like most of his fellows, that geese turned to beavers and
snakes to raccoons. He told Smith of a certain pond where he knew all
the beavers were frequently killed during a hunting season, but they
were just as thick again on the following winter. There was seemingly no
water communication with this pond, and beavers did not travel by land.
Therefore it must be that the geese that alighted here in great numbers
during the fall, turned to beavers, and for proof of this assertion the
Indian called Smith's attention to their palmated hind feet. The boy
suggested that there might be subterranean passages leading to this
pond, whereby the beavers could gain access to it, but Tecaughretanego
was not entirely convinced.

In conversation with his Indian friend Smith happened to say that
beavers caught fish. The Indian laughed at him, and told him that
beavers ate flesh of no kind, but lived on the bark of trees, roots, and
other growing things. "I asked him," said Smith, "if the beaver was an
amphibious animal, or if it could live under water? He said that the
beaver was a kind of subterraneous water animal, that lives in or near
the water, but they were no more amphibious than the ducks and geese
were--which was constantly proven to be the case, as all the beavers
that are caught in steel traps are drowned, provided the trap be heavy
enough to keep them under water. As the beaver does not eat fish, I
inquired of Tecaughretanego why the beavers made such large dams? He
said they were of use to them