196 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
“ The introduction of nutria and silk in the manu- 
facture of hats in the early forties of the last century 
struck a deadly blow at the value of beaver, the 
chief staple fur of Canada and the north-west for 
two centuries, from which it has not yet quite 
recovered. For nearly half a century thereafter, 
the prices annually obtained for pelts were some 
60 and 70 per cent. below the average which had 
previously ruled. Since the Alaska fur seal, how- 
ever, has come into ‘fashion’ very much better 
rates have been realised by the smaller quantities 
of beaver sold in recent years. With the view of 
obtaining better prices in England, as well as for 
its future increase in numbers, the Company natur- 
ally favoured a continuation of its beneficial policy 
of restriction ; but owing to the then general abun- 
dance 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 
91,459. 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- 
