DARK FURS. 207 



are, or ought to be, interested in the keeping up 

 of the supply and quality, the trapper, wholesale 

 man and manufacturer alike. Let the last two 

 unite and not buy unprime skins, and the for- 

 mer for want of a market would very soon hunt 



in season only. 



* * # 



In this northern country fur-bearing animals 

 continue prime much longer than elsewhere. 

 The trappers and hunters (Indians) only come 

 down from the interior from the tenth of June, 

 and all the way down to the end of the' month. 

 Thus the month of June is the fur buying 

 month. 



Prior to the Paris Exposition a fair and 

 legitimate trade was possible, the Indians got a 

 fair and reasonable price for their skins, and as 

 a rule were reasonably honest. But that year 

 marked the demoralization of the fur trade on 

 this coast. Opposition became keen and fur 

 buyers from Quebec, Boston, New York and 

 Paris, came to the different places of resort of 

 the Indians, bidding up raw furs to prices out 

 of all reason. The consequence of which were, 

 and are, that the Indian did not pay his fur- 

 nisher, but kept up his finest furs to sell to these 

 parties for high cash prices. 



Other traders followed the fur buyers, and 

 sold the Indians useless trashy articles. The 



