454 
TRAVELS IN OREGON, NO. 2. 
families with them, and places where they are to trap 
during the season, on some favorable ground, are assigned 
to them. These parties leave Vancouver in October and 
return in May or June. They usually trap on shares, 
and the portion they are to receive is defined by an 
agreement, the conditions of which depend very much 
upon their skill. All the profits of the company depend 
upon economical management; for the quantity of pel fry 
in this section of the country, and indeed it may be said 
the fur trade on this side of the mountains, has fallen ofif 
fifty per cent, within the last few years. It is reported 
that the business at present is hardly worth pursuing. 
The number of posts occupied by the Hudson’s Bay 
Company in this territory, is twenty-five. These are 
located at the best points for trade, and so as to secure 
the usual resorts of the Indians, without interfering with 
their usual habits. The accompanying view of one of 
these establishments, Fort Glossop, will serve to give a 
general idea of their arrangement and appearance. It 
may be questioned whether the trade of the Hudson’s 
Bay Company in Oregon yields any profit at present; 
but the Puget Sound Company, by the accumulation of 
live stock, which is very rapid, is augmenting its wealth; 
and, in the event of the country becoming settled at a 
future day, the farms and other land possessed by the 
company must become very valuable, as the posts occupy 
all the points most favorably situated for trade, and 
the agricultural establishments have been placed in many 
of the best positions for farming operations. The utmost 
economy is practised in every department, and great 
exertions are made to push the operations of the com¬ 
panies over a larger field of action. By means of their 
credit and capital, they have established mercantile 
houses at the Sandwich Islands and San Francisco, where 
articles of every description imported in the vessels of 
the company may be purchased. 
