232 SALMON FISHING IN CANADA. 



of 3,000 acres, and a considerable quantity of cattle. This, 

 together with all other posts south of the 49th parallel, 

 has been conveyed by a treaty to the United States, at a 

 price fixed by the commissioners appointed by the parties. 

 The fur trade is naturally a decreasing trade. In a 

 letter from JNIr. Pelly, the governor, to Lord Glenelg, 

 previous to the charter of 1838, he states that nearly their 

 whole profits were drawn from their own proper territories, 

 their own trade exhibiting in some instances a trifling 

 loss and in others a trifling gain. This difference between 

 their own proper territory and that obtained from the 

 Ts^'orth-west Company has been occasioned by the fact 

 that the Bay Company have uniformly, except in Oregon, 

 enforced regulations for the preservation of game, while 

 all their rivals destroyed them with reckless prodigality. 

 In 1844 they expjorted, from the whole of their possessions, 

 433,398 skins, valued at about ^^800,000. In 1845 their 

 exportations were of a value a little exceeding that of the 

 previous year. In these same years tlie value of the 

 goods introduced into the country was about ^200,000. 

 The whole num])er of persons employed was about 1,212. 

 Eating the salaries and wages of these at ^150,000, the 

 net profit would be ^450,000. From 1845 up to this 

 time the number of skins taken has gradually decreased, 

 and there has been a corresponding decrease of impor- 

 tations and of the number of employes. The profits are 

 now about ^300,000. From this sum, in order to ascer- 



