200 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
every trade competing point from Quebec to the 
North Pacific and from the international boundary 
to Hudson’s 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 exterminated 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 companies, for the 
due preservation of this valuable 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 through- 
out the Territories, British Columbia, the Yukon, 
and the east were swarming with beaver ; but this, 
unfortunately, is not the case to-day. From 1858 
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 
about 50,000 for 1897, 48,000 in 1900, 46,000 in 
1902, and 49,190 for 1903. This is, without doubt, 
a bad showing for some of the later of the twenty- 
six years which have succeeded that statement. 
