272 INDIAN CURRENCY. 



" Rats," with whom his tribe were then at enmity, 

 and his hfe was sought in return. The company, 

 however, redeemed his Hfe by payment of a fine, and 

 the tribes are now on a friendly footing : the fine 

 paid was forty shins, to explain which term I must 

 notice that the Indian currency, or that set up by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company in their exchanges with the 

 Indians, is conducted by means of proportionate 

 values to a single standard. This standard is a large 

 beaver-skin, and called a skin : thus the price paid 

 to redeem this man's life was not really forty beaver- 

 skins, but articles of value equivalent to their amount, 

 as follows : — 



By this species of exchange or value all articles 

 on either side are rated, the company having an 

 established tariff" for each district, which may not, 

 on any account, be deviated from, unless by revision 

 at head-quarters. 



The Indians and Esquimaux are still as great 

 enemies as when Dease and Simpson made their 

 excursions upon the coast, despite the strenuous 



