OF THE POLAR SEA. 





83 



the manner in which the trade is conducted at the different inland 



posts of the fur Companies. 



The standard of exchange in all mercantile transactions with the 

 natives is a beaver skin, the relative value of which, as originally 

 established by the traders, differs considerably from the present 

 worth of the articles it represents ; but the Indians are averse to 

 change. Three martin, eight musk-rat, or a single lynx, or wol- 

 verene skin, are equivalent to one beaver ; a silver fox, white fox, or 

 otter, are reckoned two beavers, and a black fox, or large black bear, 

 are equal to four; a mode of reckoning which has very little con- 

 nexion with the real value of these different furs in the European 

 market. Neither has any attention been paid to the original cost 

 of European articles, in fixing the tarif by which they are sold to 

 the Indians. A coarse butcher's knife is one skin, a woollen blanket 

 or a fathom of coarse cloth, eight, and a fowling-piece fifteen. The 

 Indians receive their principal outfit of clothing and ammunition 

 on credit in the autumn, to be repaid by their winter hunts ; the 

 amount intrusted to each of the hunters, varying with their reputations 

 for industry and skill, from twenty to one hundred and fifty skins. 

 The Indians are generally anxious to pay off the debt thus incurred, 

 but their good intentions are often frustrated by the arts of the 

 rival traders. Each of the Companies keeps men constantly employed 

 travelling over the country during the winter, to collect the furs 

 from the different bands of hunters as fast as they are procured. 

 The poor Indian endeavours to behave honestly, and when he has 

 gathered a few skins sends notice to the post from whence he pro- 

 cured his supplies, but if discovered in the mean time by the op- 

 posite party, he is seldom proof against the temptation to which he 

 is exposed. However firm he may be in his denials at first, his 

 resolutions are enfeebled by the sight of a little rum, and when he 

 has tasted the intoxicating beverage, they vanish like smoke, and 

 he brings forth his store of furs, which he has carefully concealed 



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