EXTENT OF THE H. B. COMPANY'S OPEEATIONS. 211 



From the foregoing table it appears that the operations 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company extend over territories 

 whose inhabitants owe allegiance to three different and 

 independent governments, British, Eussian, and the United 

 States. These immense territories, exceeding 4,500,000 

 square miles in area, are divided, for the exclusive purposes 

 of the fur trade, into four departments and thirty-three 

 districts, in which are included one hundred and fifty-two 

 posts, commanding the services of three thousand agents, 

 traders, voyageurs, and servants, besides giving occasional 

 or constant employment to about one hundred thousand 

 savage Indian hunters. Armed vessels, both sailing and 

 steam, are employed on the North- West Coast to carry on 

 the fur trade with the warlike natives of that distant 

 region. More than twenty years ago the trade of the 

 North- West Coast gave employment to about one thousand 

 men, occupying twenty-one permanent establishments, 

 or engaged in navigating five armed sailing vessels, and 

 one armed steamer, varying from one hundred to three 

 hundred tons in burden. History does not furnish 

 another example of an association of private individuals 

 exerting a powerful influence over so large an extent of 

 the earth's surface, and administering their affairs with 

 such consummate skill and unwavering devotion to the 

 original objects of their incorporation. 



