754 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii. 



other suitable sections of the United States of America. The Lamp- 

 son's share of the foregoing- summary statement would therefore be 

 subject to the following estimated oat.slde of Canada reductions: 

 Many of the badgers, bears, beavers, ermines, iishers, blue and cross 

 foxes, and all of the 31,597 gray, a large proportion of the silver and 

 white, with upward of three-tifths of the red foxes, and many also of 

 the white foxes, h'-nxes, and martens; full}' three-fifths of the minks; 

 more than two-thirds of the musquash; an important quota of the 

 otters and rabbits; all of the 3,517 sables; some of the dry hair-seals; 

 fourteen-fifteenths of the skunks, and a fair share of the wolves and 

 wolverines. 



We find 57 swan skins in the above summary, and they no doubt 

 belonged to the Hudson's Ba}^ Company. Although no skins of Olor 

 columhlanas or O. huccinator appear in their fur catalogues for 1897, 

 1900, 1902, or 1903, 3'et for many years they never failed in having 

 quite a number of swan skins for sale in London. From 1853 to 1877 

 they sold a total of 17,671, or an average of nearl}^ 707 skins a year. 

 There were seven good years (1853 to 1856, 1861, 1862, and 1867), with 

 sales ranging between 985 and 1,312 in 1854 (maximum), and seven poor 

 years (1870 to 1877), with returns varying between 338 and the mini- 

 mum (122) in 1877. From 1858 to 1884, inclusive, Athabasca District 

 turned out 2,705 swan skins, nearly all of them from Fort Chipewyan. 

 Mackenzie River District, according to a statement in ni}- possession, 

 supplied 2,500 skins from 1863 to 1883. From 1862 to 1877 Fort 

 Resolution, Great Slave Lake, contributed 798 thereof. For 1889 

 Athabasca traded but 33, as against 251 skins in 1853. In 1889 and 

 1890 Isle a la Crosse, headquarters of English River District, sent out 

 two skins for each outfit. 



The wording of a corporation's connnission is ahnost unknown out- 

 side of the service, and the copying herein of the author's own last 

 parchment may not therefore be considered out of place. His first as 

 chief trader was dated 1868, under the deed poll of 183-1; the next as 

 factor under the deed poll of 1871 was granted in 1872, and the follow- 

 ing in 1875. I may premise that the former recognized })ut two ranks, 

 those of chief traders and chief factors, while the latter was four 

 grades, name!}' , junior chief traders, chief traders, factors, and chief 

 factors. Except in the title conferred, all of the commissions are 

 exactly similar. The chief factor commission is as follows: 



Roderick MacFaklane, Esquire: 



By virtue of the charter granted by King Charles the Second by his letters patent 

 under the great seal of England bearing date the second day of May in the twenty- 

 second year of his reign to the governor and company of adventurers trading into 

 Hudson's Bay. We do hereby appoint you a chief factor of the said company in all 

 places where trade is carried on by the said company. You are therefore, in virtue of 

 this commission, to exercise all the powers anrl tf) perform all the duties which now 



