]\IA]\IM.iLS OF NORTHERN CANADA 257 



for that year, I doubt if both returns of beaver would much 

 exceed the total of 175,170 skins, given in the London fur 

 sale statement for 1871. From 1S58 to 1884 the District 

 of Athabasca contributed 445,014, or an average of 17,116 

 a year to the Company's London sales. The average for the 

 self-same posts for the five outfits (1885 to 1889) is about 

 8,000; and with the "opposition" trade added from 1890 

 to the spring of 1903, both will undoubtedly exhibit a fur- 

 ther decline. From 1863 to 1883 Mackenzie River District 

 exported a total of 183,216 beaver, giving an average of 

 11,822 a year. For the three years (1886, 1887, 1889) of 

 which I hold data, it had fallen to 6,852, and is, I fear, very 

 much lower at the present time. These are but samples of 

 the general decrease in beaver receipts experienced at every 

 trade competii^ point from iQuebec to the North Pacific and 

 from the international boundary to Hudson Bay and the 

 north-western limit of its range in Arctic America. 



It is now well known that for some years prior to the 

 coalition in 1821, the annual catch of beaver was rapidly 

 dwindling, and that in several sections it had been extermin- 

 ated by reckless slaughter ; another decade or two of similar 

 trade competition would doubtless have led to its extinction, 

 except for a time in retreats remote and difficult of access. 

 We have had ample proof, however, by obtained results, of 

 the beneficial operation of the wise and far-reaching policy 

 adopted by Governor Sir George Simpson and the able and 

 experienced fur-trade counsellors of the then united com- 

 panies, for the due preservation of this vaPaable animal. For 

 some years before and after the transfer of the country to 

 Canada in 1870, the entire Peace River, together with many 

 other streams and small ponds throughout the Territories, 

 British Columbia, the Yukon, and the east, were swarming 

 with ibeaver; but this, unfortunately, is not the case to-day. 

 From 1853 to 1877, inclusive, the average number of skins 

 sold by the Hudson's Bay Company in London was 118,615, 

 as against their total catalogue sales of albout 50,000 for 



