137 
Change in the Fur Trade 
He was mistaken about the trappers, not having ventured, 
for, as we have seen, there are traces of at least three parties: that 
of Ashley, that of the missionaries mentioned by Farnham, 
the trappers also mentioned by him, and the one indicated 
by the wreckage discovered in Lodore by Powell’s expeditions, 
though the latter and that mentioned by Farnham are possibly 
the same. 
The fur trade, which up to about 1835 was principally in 
beaver skins, had now somewhat changed, and buffalo robes 
Las Vegas, Southern Nevada, on the Old Spanish Trail. 
Oil sketch by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 
were the chief article of traffic. But the buffalo were also be¬ 
ginning to diminish. They were no longer found on the 
western slope of the mountains, and no wonder, as the fur com¬ 
panies annually gathered in about ninety thousand marketable 
skins during the ten years ending with 1842, yet it was only 
those animals killed in the cold months whose pelts were suit¬ 
able for the fur business. The largest number of buffalo were 
killed in the summer months for other purposes; therefore one 
is not surprised that they were soon exterminated in the Col¬ 
orado River Valley, where they never were as numerous as on 
