198 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
and subsequent auction, while previous receipts 
from the Bay had been disposed of by private 
treaty. 
“ This first official 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 expe- 
ditions 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 Winnipeg country), 
and the other 300 packs of 100 each (80,000 
beaver and 9,000 martens). This made a total of 
