A Newhouse Beaver Trap From: A Trapper's Guide, BCARS NW799 N548.2

While posted at Fort McLeod Tod often visited Perch Lake which was about twelve miles from the fort. While paddling a small stream near the lake he discovered beaver scat which was so large he didn't believe it could have come from a beaver. By questioning the local Sekani Indians he found out that there were two beavers who had lived in the area for a long time. They were rumoured to be very clever and had eluded hunters for many years. Tod saw this as a challenge and decided that the beavers would not elude him.

Returning to the stream where he saw the first signs, he searched until he found a trail leading to a small pond. He dug a hole and placed a steel trap in it which he camouflaged with dirt from the hole. He was careful not to touch the earth because beavers have a strong sense of smell.

Beaver Woodcut

The next morning Tod found one of the clever beavers in his trap. The beast was exhausted, having trampled the vegetation all around the tree to which the trap was secured, and Tod easily killed it. The animal was enormous and Tod was unable to lift the whole creature into his canoe. The black pelt was larger than a Hudson's Bay blanket. Tod noticed that the animal's fore paws were missing possibly from earlier encounters with traps.

Tod cared nothing for the fate of the other beaver; he had proved himself more wily than both the beaver and the trappers and hunters who tried and failed to capture the creature. But this triumph paled over the years; as an old man Tod regretted the death of the grandfather beaver (Belyk, 1995).

Tod's Pet Beaver at Trout lake

A Native hunter gave Tod a young beaver to raise as a pet. This animal had a strong hatred of Natives which was obvious in its behaviour. Tod told stories of his pet to Malcolm Sproat, who included them in his biography of Tod, which was reprinted by Marge Wolfenden in 1954. The strange antics of the beaver are told in the first person so we can assume that these are close to Tod's own words.

A Beaver Pelt Courtesy of RBCM

“The Indians often were invited to enter the general room, and in their fashion squatted with their backs against the wall, and laid—it might be#151;a skin, a pipe or a knife on the floor beside them. Circuitously and gradually getting nearer to the Indians, their heavy-tailed enemy (the beaver) seized one of these articles, and in his beaver fashion carried it on his paws and under his chin outside the house, then giving it a parting whack with his tail he returned for another article. Lastly, he would seize an Indian by the thigh and take his legs under his jaws, but the human "article" being too heavy to carry, the beaver could only push the Indian round#151;nevertheless, in the absence of opposition#151;(for the Indian in this case humoured his enemy), the beaver working with great energy and excitement, but not attempting to bite, forced the intruder, by gyrations to the door.

On one occasion this same beaver carried out an Indian child, which, incautiously, had been left alone in the room, and gave it a whack with his tail after he got it outside the house. Attracted by the child's screams, I beat the beaver so severely that he left Indian children alone ever afterwards, but still showed his hatred of the Indian men and women” (Wolfenden, 1954).