MAmi.\XS OF XOETHERN CANADA 255 



to the then general abundance of beaver, and the advent of 

 competition in the trade, this much desired course had to 

 be gradually abandoned. For the twenty-five years from 

 1853 to 1877, the Hudson's Bay Company sold a total of 

 nearly three million skins (2,965,389) of this important 

 animal in the world's fur mart, London. The yearly catch 

 from 1853 with 55,456 pelts to 87,013 in 1858 exhibited a 

 steady increase. The year 1859, with 107,196 pelts, was, 

 I believe, the first to reach and exceed the century mark since 

 the union in 1821, but 1860 dropped to 91,i59. While 1861 

 was only 926 skins below 1859, 1862 produced 115,580 pelts, 

 1863 produced 114,149, and 1864 produced 142,998, yet 

 the last-mentioned year's sale was immediately followed by 

 a decline of 24,750 pelts. The balance of the series from 

 1866 to 1877 varies between the minimum, 115,646 in 1877, 

 and the maximum, 175,170 in 1871, certainly the highest 

 and best since 1821, and probably one of, if not, the most 

 productive in the history of the Hudson's Bay Company. 

 An old ^vi-iter of repute, however, writes that 175,000 beaver 

 skins were collected by the " ancient concern " in one year 

 about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is possible 

 that this large number may have comprised the country trade 

 of two seasons. European wars were rather frequent and 

 somewhat protracted in those days, while it is on record 

 that one or two of the Company's ships failed in making the 

 annual round voyage between London and Hudson Bay. I 

 think it is a matter of regret that the two recent his- 

 torians of the Hudson's Bay Company, while throwing 

 much light on the earlier and some of their later trade opera- 

 tions, have not also given us some definite statements of 

 their yearly fur shipments and sales, which would have 

 been generally appreciated. Mr. Beekles Willson has, how- 

 ever, given an interesting account of the Company's first 

 London puiblic sale, which took place on January 24, 1672. 

 On this occasion the 3,000 pounds weight of beaver were put 

 up in thirty lots, and (fetched from 36 to 55 shillings a 

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