198 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



and subsequent auction, while previous receipts 

 from the Bay had been disposed of by private 

 treaty. 



" This first official sale, as it subsequently proved, 

 of a series of great transactions which for upward 

 of two centuries have made London the centre of 

 the world's fur trade, excited the greatest interest, 

 and both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of 

 York, besides Dryden, the poet, were among the 

 many spectators. Previous to the advent of 

 Canadian traders from the East, the Indians of the 

 surrounding country were wont to assemble in the 

 spring at Lake Winnipeg to the number of perhaps 

 1,500, where also birch-bark canoes were built. Six 

 hundred of these containing a thousand hunters, 

 exclusive of women, came down annually to York 

 factory with furs to trade. Beaver were very 

 numerous in those days, and a great many were 

 wasted in various ways, often as clothing and 

 bedding. Not a few were hung on trees as native 

 offerings upon the death of a child or near relation ; 

 occasionally the fur was burned off, and the beaver 

 roasted whole for food banquets among the Indians. 



" He further states that in 1742, two large expe- 

 ditions of natives from the interior came down to 

 York and ChurchiU (Fort Prince of Wales). One 

 of them had 200 packs of 100 skins each (20,000 

 beaver, probably from Lake Winnipeg country), 

 and the other 300 packs of 100 each (30,000 

 beaver and 9,000 martens). This made a total of 



