196 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



*' The introduction of nutria and silk in the manu- 

 facture of hats in the early forties of the last century 

 struck a deadly blow at the value of beaver, the 

 chief staple fur of Canada and the north-west for 

 two centuries, from which it has not yet quite 

 recovered. For nearly half a century thereafter, 

 the prices annually obtained for pelts were some 

 60 and 70 per cent, below the average which had 

 previously ruled. Since the Alaska fur seal, how- 

 ever, has come into ' fashion ' very much better 

 rates have been realised by the smaller quantities 

 of beaver sold in recent years. With the view of 

 obtaining better prices in England, as well as for 

 its future increase in numbers, the Company natur- 

 ally favoured a continuation of its beneficial policy 

 of restriction ; but owing to the then general abun- 

 dance of beaver, and the advent of competition in 

 the trade, this much desired course had to be 

 gradually abandoned. For the twenty-five years, 

 from 1853 to 1877, the Hudson's Bay Company 

 sold a total of nearly three million skins (2,965,389) 

 of this important animal in the world's fur mart — 

 London. The yearly catch from 1853, with 55,4^56 

 pelts, to 87,013 in 1858 exhibited a steady increase. 

 The year 1859, with 107,196 pelts, was, I believe, 

 the first to reach and exceed the century mark 

 since the union in 1821, but 1860 dropped to 

 91,459. While 1861 was only 926 skins below 

 1859, 1862 produced 115,580 pelts, 1863 produced 

 114,149, and 1864 produced 142,998, yet the last- 



