90 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



disease ! Indeed. But I am too old a bird to swallow 

 all the medical profession say ; and, moreover, the fleshly 

 lusts have got such a hold on me that I go in for comfort 

 even if there is " death in the pot." I have found this 

 rule of life agree remarkably well with me so far ; and it 

 is to be noted that a scarecrow often keeps the bird from 

 a good feed. 



Part of every depot consists of offices and storerooms. 

 The factor receives and values the pelts brought in by the 

 white trapper, or the Indian. The former rarely troubles 

 the Company, as he knows that he can take his goods to 

 a much better market. Payment for the furs is made in 

 " castors," and all the trade is by barter. A castor is a 

 small cube of wood used in lieu of money, and its value 

 is usually reckoned at two shillings. Having received 

 his castors, the Indian goes to the store, or trading-room, 

 and the Company's goods are displayed to his longing 

 eyes. Common guns, butchers' knives, fish-hooks, steel 

 traps, blankets, cast uniforms, and powder and shot, are 

 the articles for which there is the greatest demand ; and 

 these are selected and paid for in castors until the Indian 

 has expended his season's earnings. It is a slow process : 

 for the Indian is a cautious dealer ; and child-like, de- 

 lights to examine the whole glorious stock before making 

 his choice. Needless to point out that this barter system 

 gives the Company a double profit. So far as my ex- 

 perience goes they seem to pay about one-twentieth of 

 the value of the furs; and pay in goods which they 

 reckon on the retail, not the wholesale, list of prices. I 

 have not the slightest ill-feeling against the Hudson Bay 

 Company ; but I shall speak the plain truth the more 

 so as a critic of my first book, treating of North America, 

 seems to think I failed to give the Company credit for 

 what they had done for the Indians. I do not know 

 what particular good they have done for them. I know 

 that at one time the Indians were seldom sober when the 

 bargains were struck ; and I know that the utmost value 



