OF THE POLAR SEA. 129 
Indians are averse to change. Three marten, 
eight musk-rat, or a single lynx, or wolverene 
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: 
amode of reckoning which has very little con- 
nexion with the real value of these different furs 
in the European market. Neither has any at- 
tention been paid to the original cost of European 
articles, in fixing the tariff 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 am- 
munition 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 dif. . 
ferent bands of hunters as fast as they are pro- 
_ cured, The poor Indian endeavours to behave 
honestly, and when he has gathered a few skins 
sends notice to the post from whence he procured 
a 
Vor. I. 
