DCHP-1 Online

castor [< Cdn F]

• 1a n. Hist. a beaver pelt.

  • 1769  (1898)  We have sent all the furs and everything received except about 60 lbs. Castor and a quantity of Musquash skins that could not be brought down.
  • 1964  Accordingly, the Hurons and Algonquins had to explain to the Iroquois that the supply of Castor was "disproportionné."

• 1b n. a unit of barter equivalent to one made beaver.

  See also: beaver (def. 5)  made beaver  

  • 1848  (1859)  The number of castors that an Indian makes in a winter hunt varies from fifty to two hundred, according to his perseverance and activity, and the part of the country in which he hunts.
  • 1871  (1935)  A beaver skin was worth two castors, or one dollar. A black fox skin usually brought twelve castors in trade and a silver fox about four.
  • 1926  If they [furs] were worth fifty castors he gave the Indian fifty little pieces of wood which the latter returned in payment for the goods which he wanted

• 2a n. See castoreum 1908 quote.

  See also: castoreum (def. 1a)  

  • 1946  Castor refers to the beaver's secretion or castoreum, which Vergil believed smelled like castor oil.

• 2b n. the scent sacs or sacs of the beaver.

  See also: castoreum (def. 2)  

  • 1955  [Castor--This is the term used by Slavey Indians to refer to beaver testicles (or, rather, the attached scent sacs). They sell them to the Hudson's Bay Company. Sometimes the Indians add little stones inside to get more money by weight.]
  • 1965  How come the beaver's castors? What purpose do they serve? The muskrat lives much the same life as does the beaver and he gets along without castors.