CASTOROLOGIA. II3 



From small beginnings the organization developed rapidly till 

 its army of employees rose to upwards of four thousand. The men 

 conspicuously associated with this Company stand in our country's 

 history as powerful, brave and energetic examples of Scotch Cana- 

 dians, and we admire the names, Mackenzie, McGillivray, McTa- 

 vish, the McGills, Frobishers, Simpsons, and others, though one 

 important name has been curiously omitted from its share of glory, 

 and that is the name of David Thompson, whose achievements 

 have been of national importance, yet but little popular reputation 

 has he gained. 



Thus the declining years of the last century saw the North West 

 Company enjoying an amount of prosperity which elevated the 

 shareholders to the dignity of merchant princes, and the importance 

 of the trade eclipsed all other projects for many years. 



Early in the present century, a spirit of enterprise seemed to have 

 awakened in the United States, and in 1804 Messrs. Lewis and 

 Clarke, fitted out by the American Government, accomplished the 

 task which Messrs. Carver and Whitworth had projected as early as 

 1774 ; this being no less than a march across the continent, by way 

 of the Missouri, and the water courses of the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains, thence over the mountain peaks, by the hazard- 

 ous and treacherous passes, all unknown to the explorers, till the 

 fertile Pacific slopes were reached. 



John Jacob Astor was then a young man, full of pluck and enter- 

 prise, and his attention being attracted to the new fields, he organized 

 in 1 8 1 o, the famous "Pacific Fur Company . ' ' He outfitted one contin- 

 gent for crossing the continent, and another by ship to round Cape 

 Horn, to carry supplies for the proposed settlement of Astoria and 

 for the further purpose of pursuing trade with the natives along the 

 coast. The story of this enterprise as told by Washington Irving 

 is among the classics of our literature, and a more enchanting his- 

 torical romance America has never produced. 



Now we have the three avenues more actively employed than 



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