THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



CHAPTER I 



IS THE WORLD FACING A PERMANENT SHORTAGE OF FURS ? IN- 

 CREASE IN VALUES, ENORMOUS INCREASES IN NUMBERS OF 

 SKINS SOLD AND TRANSFER OF FUR CENTRES FROM EUROPE TO 

 AMERICA 



Is the world facing a permanent shortage of furs ? 



Lovers of the wild life say it is. Fur dealers say it is not; and 

 both present cogent reasons for their arguments. 



It is the oldest industry in the world, fur hunting, fur trading. 

 The cave man, who slew a beast with a club to take a pelt for his 

 own covering, was the world's first manufacturer ; and his discovery 

 that a pelt would make clothes for himself and his family led far 

 afield to the exploration of half the world. It was the little beaver 

 led discoverers up the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, and from 

 the Great Lakes down North to Hudson Bay and down South from 

 the Mississippi to the Rio Grande, and down the Mackenzie to the 

 Arctic, and across the mountains down the Columbia to the Pacific. 

 It was the little beaver led Peter Skene Ogden's fur brigade from 

 the mouth of the Columbia across what are now the States of 

 Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Northern 

 California. 



And it was the little sable led the Cossacks across Russia to 

 what is now Kamchatka ; and it was the sea otter that led the 

 Russians, Americans, Spaniards and Englishmen around the world 

 in crazy little cockle-shell sail boats to explore the Pacific Coast 

 from the Golden Gate to Bering Sea. 



