172 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hud- 

 son's Bay in a Body Corporate, with perpetual succession and 

 with power to elect a Governor and Deputy Governor and 

 Committee for the management of their trade and affairs ." 



From it I learned that the commissioned officers appointed 

 by the Company to carry on their trade in Canada were: 

 a Commissioner, three Inspecting Chief Factors, eight Chief 

 Factors, fifteen Factors, ten Chief Traders, and twenty-one 

 Junior Chief Traders, all of whom on appointment became 

 shareholders in the Company. While the Governor and Com- 

 mittee had their offices in London, the Commissioner was the 

 Canadian head with his offices in Winnipeg, and to assist him 

 an advisory council, composed of Chief Factors and Chief 

 Traders, was occasionally called. The Company's territory 

 was divided into four departments — the Western, the South- 

 ern, the Northern, and the Montreal — while each department 

 was again sub-divided into many districts, the total number 

 being thirty-four. The non-commissioned employees at the 

 various posts were: clerks, postmasters, and servants. Besides 

 the regular post servants there were others employed such as: 

 voyageurs, among whom were the guides, canoe-men, boatmen, 

 and scowmen; then, again, there were fur-runners, fort-hunters, 

 and packeteers. 



In the morning a miserable northeaster was blowing a heavy 

 fall of snow over the country, and the Factor offered to show 

 me the fur-loft where the clerk and a few half-breed men- 

 servants were folding and packing furs. First they were put 

 into a collapsible mould to hold them in the proper form, then 

 when the desired weight of eighty pounds had been reached, 

 they were passed into a powerful home-made fur-press, and 

 after being pressed down into a solid pack, were corded and 

 covered with burlap, and marked ready for shipment. The 

 room in which the men worked was a big loft with endless 

 bundles of skins of many sizes and colours hanging from the 



