1906-7. . TRANSACTIONS. 91 



Government limply abandoned Oregon to the Americans. You 

 remember the story that Butler tells in his "Wild North Land": 

 "It is said that once upon a time a certain British nobleman 

 anchored his ship-of-war in the deep waters of Puget Sound. 

 It was at a time when discussion was ripe upon the question of 

 disputed ownership in Oregon, and this ship was sent out for the 

 protection of British interests on the shores of the North Pacific. 

 She bore an ill-fated name for British diplomacy. She was called 

 the "America." 



"The commander of the 'America' was fond of salmon 

 fishing ; the waters of Oregon were said to be stocked with salmon ; 

 the fishing would be excellent. The mighty 'Ekewan/ monarch 

 of salmon, would fall a victim to flies, long famous on waters of 

 Tweed or Tay. Alas, for the perverseness of Pacific salmon. 

 No cunningly twisted hackle, no deftly turned wing of mallard, 

 summer duck, or jungle cock, would tempt the blue and silver 

 monsters of the Columbia or the Cowlitz rivers. In despair, his 

 lordship reeled up his line, took to pieces his rod, and wrote in 

 disgust to his brother (a prominent statesman of the day) that 

 the whole country was not worth a . 



Butler does not vouch for the truth of the story. Neither 

 do I. Nevertheless no Canadian ever attacked the policy of the 

 Imperial Government touching the international boundary so 

 severely as this British Officer. In any event, the United States 

 got Oregon — to the triumph of British diplomacy! But this is a 

 far cry from the Hudson's Bay Company, and its eminently 

 respectable headquarters at the corner of Lime and Leadenhall 

 streets. 



In the archives at Hudson's Bay House is preserved one of 

 the most remarkable collections of manuscripts in the world. 

 In its way it is absolutely unique. It is the documentary history 

 of the company from the days of that picturesque scoundrel 

 Prince Rupert, to the present day. Piled upon shelves, literally 

 from floor to ceiling, lie thousands of manuscript journals, cover- 

 ing more than two centuries of the fur-trade. Faded, and 

 blurred, and battered; written upon every description of writing 

 material, in the varying language of the seventeenth, eighteenth 

 and nineteenth centuries, these journals represent the life-histories 

 of an army of adventurers; generation after generation of them, 

 all in the service of the same great company. One can almost 

 read the history of the fur-trade on their outer wrappers. Here 



