BEAVER AND CANADIAN HISTORY 197 
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, 172,042 in 
1867, 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 
writer of repute, however, writes that 175,000 
beaver skins were collected by the ‘ancient con- 
cern’ 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 
neither of the two recent historians of the Hudson’s 
Bay Company, while throwing much light on the 
earlier and some of their later trade operations, 
have not also given us some definite statements of 
their yearly fur shipments and sales, which would 
have been generally appreciated. Mr. Beckles 
Willson has, however, given an interesting account 
of the Company’s first London public sale, which 
took place on January 24, 1672. On this occasion 
the 3,000 weight of beaver were put up in thirty 
lots, and fetched from 36 to 55 shillings (a pound 
probably). The other furs and peltries, bear, 
marten, and otter, &c., were reserved for a separate 
