The Home of the Wolveretie and Beaver. 25 



For many years, for nearly a century indeed, the 

 Hudson's Bay Company confined their operations 

 to the coast. The fur-bearing animals were in 

 great abundance, the Indian tribes in the vicinity 

 captured them, brought the skins into the nearest 

 fort or factory, and exchanged them for powder, 

 rifles, rum, or some other European commodity. 

 Thus far the Company had had it all their own way ; 

 no adventurous traders entered their sacred bay, 

 and a more close and lucrative trade was developed 

 than their most sanguine dreams had ever led them 

 to expect. But a rival was already afield, and 

 attacking their preserves ; an enemy not arriving 

 by sea — that they could easily have stopped — but 

 working up from the interior of Canada, the direc- 

 tion in which they were most defenceless. 



From the earliest settlement of Canada by the 

 French the fur trade was recognised as of the first 

 importance to the colony, and to procure a supply 

 of skins the Indians were encouraged to penetrate 

 into the country, being generally accompanied by 

 some of the Canadians, who found means to induce 

 the more distant tribes to bring their peltry to the 

 settlements for sale or barter. These adventurous 

 men fell so much in love with the wild life that 

 they led amongst the Indians, that they only 

 returned to civilisation at long intervals, and 



