INLAND PACKS. 81 



The size of one of these packs, ready for 

 transportation, was 24 inches long, 17 inches 

 broad, and 10 inches thick. The expansion of 

 the compressed skins would, after a few days, 

 give it a rounded shape in the middle, but when 

 first out of the press it was almost perfectly 

 square, and it was the pride of each post man- 

 ager to outdo the others in the beauty and solid- 

 ity of his packs. 



A well-made pack would withstand the ill 

 usage and the hundreds of handlings in making 

 a journey of four or five hundred miles from an 

 interior post, and would reach the first steamer 

 or train of cars without a tying giving way. 

 In my young days I have seen a pile of 296 of 

 these packs on the beach at one portage. 



An anecdote relating to the care of such a 

 valuable cargo may be here appended. An old 

 factor who had not left the interior for twenty- 

 seven years, applied for and received leave to 

 visit civilization with the understanding that 

 he would take care of the furs in transit. This 

 he did during a journey of days and weeks com- 

 ing down the great river, standing at each port- 

 age till every pack was' over, and checking them 

 off by numbers and the aggregate. 



At last he reached steamboat navigation, 

 shipped his packs, and had the bill of lading in 



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