204 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



kett (abandoned) and Nelson. The last post (latitude 59° 

 north) had one skin for each of the outfits 1886, 1887, and 

 1889. Fort Providence had one and Fort Simpson six 

 examples in 188,9. For the period 1858 to 1884, Athabasca 

 District turned out 5,138 fishers. The average trade for the 

 five succeeding outfits (1885 to 1889) would be about 100 

 skins less a year, after making due allowance for the gain 

 by the Kesolution transfer and the loss of the four upper 

 Peace Eiver posts (constituted anew district in 1878). The 

 contribution of the latter for 1889 was 122. That of the 

 stations added thereto (taken from Edmonton) was as fol- 

 lows : White Fish Lake gave 33, Sturgeon Lake 20, Trout 

 Lake 20, and Lesser Slave Lake 61 skins for the same year. 

 English Kiver District, by its posts at Isle a la Crosse, 

 Portage la Loche, and Green Lake supplied 63, 18 and 48 

 skins, respectively, for 1889, and 22, 19, and 31 skins, 

 respectively, in 1890. The district of New Caledonia, Brit- 

 ish Columbia, gave an average of about 300 skins a year for 

 the years 1885 to 1889, while Fort St. James, Stuart Lake, 

 iind Eraser Lake always headed the list in nearly equal 

 quantities; the other posts, except Babine, made up the 

 balance with much smaller quotas. Then we have Cumber- 

 land District, with a total of 195 skins for 1888 and 216 

 in 188.9 ; but with the exception that Cumberland House had 

 51 and 42 skins for the two years, respectively, I can not 

 give details as to where the rest of the lots came from. Mr. 

 P. Deschamlbeault never saw a single fisher during his fifteen 

 years in charge of Lac du Brochet, Reindeer Lake. 



While the annual London sales for the first twenty years, 

 1853 to 1872, ranged between the minimum, 4,605 for 1866, 

 and the maximum, 7,959 in 1870, the sales of the last five, 

 1873 to 1877, only amounted to 3,639, 3,539, 3,558, 3,263, 

 and 3,338 skins, respectively. The three best sales of 

 the series were 7,197 for 1860, 7,477 in 1869, and 

 7,959 in 1870 ; and the three lowest were 1875 with 3,558, 

 1876 with 3,263, and 1877 with 3,338, as above men- 



