256 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



pound. The other furs and peltries, bear, marten, and 

 otter, etc., were reserved for a separate and subsequent 

 auction, while previous receipts from the Bay had been dis- 

 posed of by private treaty. 



This first ofBcial 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 expeditions of 

 natives from the interior came down to York and Churchill 

 (Fort Prince of Wales). One of them had 200 packs of 

 100 skins each (20,000 beaver, probably from Lake Winni- 

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

 beaver and 9,000 martens). This made a total of 50,000 

 beaver received from both " expeditions." I take it that 

 these came from the Chipewyan Indians of the distant 

 Athabasca and intervening country, reaching Churchill by 

 way of the English and Churchill rivers. 



Doctor Bryce, in his concise History, writes that so effec- 

 tive and successful were the operations of the great North- 

 West Company of Montreal, that toward the end of the 

 eighteenth century a single year's trade produce was enor- 

 mous, and comprised 106,000 beaver, 32,000 martens, 11,800 

 minks, 17,000 musquash and 17,000 skins of other animals. 

 Still, if we knew the total Hudson's Bay Company's catch 



