744 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii. 



the view, however, oF iccoiiciling them to this enforced mode of preser- 

 vation, the natives wei-e strongly urged and encouraged to devote their 

 best energies to the trapping of martens and other fur-bearing animals. 

 After the })eaver were known to have largely increased in numbers, 

 and still sold well, the above rule was gradually relaxed; and as the 

 wants of the Indians in those days were comparatively few, they never 

 experienced any particular hardship from the limit thus imposed upon 

 them in the general interest. It may be here mentioned that the com- 

 pany never encouraged the hunting of })eaver or any other pelt out of 

 sf'dsov. On the contrary they strictly prohibited the killing of beaver 

 in siunmer, and would only reluctantly accept the skins of such animals 

 as they were assured had ])een absolutely necessary for food purposes. 

 The introduction of nutria and silk in the manufacture of hats in 

 the early forties of the last century struck a deadly blow at the value 

 of beaver, the chief staple fur of Canada and the northwest for two 

 centuries, from which it has not yet quite recovered. For nearly 

 half a century thereafter, the prices annuall}" obtained for pelts were 

 some ()(» and TO per cent below the average which had previouslv 

 ruled. Since the Alaska fvu" seal, however, has come into "fashion," 

 very much better rates have been realized by the smaller quantities of 

 beaver sold in recent 3"ears. With the view of obtaining better 

 prices in England, as well as for its future increase in numbers, the 

 company naturally favored a continuation of its beneficial policy of 

 restriction; but owing to the then general abundance of beaver, and 

 the advent of competition in the trade, this much desired course had 

 to be gradually abandoned. For the twenty-five years, from 1853 to 

 1S77, the Hudson's Bay Company sold a total of nearly three million 

 skins (2,965,38!)) of this important animal in the world's fur mart, 

 London. The yearly catch from 1853 with 55,456 pelts to 87,013 in 

 ISaS exhibited a steady increase. The year 1859, with 107,196 pelts, 

 was, I ))elieve, the first to reach and exceed the century mark since 

 the union in 1821, but 1860 dropped to 91,459. While 1861 was only 

 926 skins below 1859, 1862 produced 115,580 pelts, 1863 produced 

 114,149, and 1864 produced 142,998, 3^et the last-mentioned year's sale 

 was immediately followed by a decline of 24,750 pelts. The balance 

 of the series from 1866 to 1877 varies between the minimum, 115,646 

 in 1877, and the maximum, 172,042 in 1867, certainly the highest and 

 best since 1821, and probably one of, if not, the most productive in the 

 history of tlie Hudson's Ba}" Company. An old writer of repute, 

 however, writes that 175,000 beaver skins were collected by the 

 "ancient concern" in one year about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. It is possible that this large number may have comprised 

 the country ti'ade of two seasons. European wars were rather fre- 

 quent and somewhat protracted in those da} s, while it is on record 



