Jan. 25, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
U 1 
5. Marten; about the same number as fisher. 
6. Canada lynx; one to two thousand skins. 
7. Bay lynx; about the same number. 
8 . Red fox; two thousand skins. 
9. Cross fox; two to three hundred skins. 
10. Silver fox; twenty to thirty skins. Each 
cin was then often worth up to sixty dollars. 
12. The muskrat; from 1,000 to 100,000 skins, 
ccording to Captain Back half a million musk- 
t skins were imported annually to London. 
13. Deer, Virginia deer and mule deer; twenty 
1 thirty thousand. 
The support of so large a number of persons 
are at Fort Union required frequent hunting 
irties on horseback over the prairies, and Mr. 
cKenzie therefore used to maintain several 
complished halfbreed hunters who once a week 
snt out to make a trip of twenty miles and more 
er the prairie to chase buffalo, and after hav- 
g killed them to return to the fort with their 
ules loaded with meat. The flesh of the cows 
as of excellent flavor, the tongue being the best 
irt. These were smoked and sent in consider- 
Upper Missouri and of Fort Union. He says 
that the fort was built to tVade with the Assini- 
boines, who were a large tribe of Indians rang¬ 
ing from White Earth River on the north side 
of the Missouri to the mouth of Milk River, and 
north into the British possessions. They were 
a peaceable, inoffensive people, armed with bows 
and arrows, living in lodges made of buffalo 
skins, and roving from place to place according 
to the seasons of the year, occupying certain por¬ 
tions of their country in the summer, and during 
winter remaining where they could be protected 
from the cold with plenty of wood. For fear of 
trouble with them the traders did not sell them 
guns, but when an Indian proved to be a good 
hunter and seemed by his actions and talk a 
friend to the traders, he could occasionally bor¬ 
row a gun and a few loads of ammunition to 
make a hunt. The principal articles of trade 
were alcohol, blankets, blue and scarlet cloth, 
sheeting, ticking, tobacco, knives, fire steels, 
arrow points, brass wire of different sizes, beads, 
brass tacks, leather belts, silver hair ornaments, 
meat. The provisions for from fifty to seventy- 
five men would be only two barrels of flour, one 
sack of coffee, one barrel of sugar, one of salt 
and a little soda and pepper. After the fort was 
established, and proved a permanent trading 
point, the ground was cultivated, large quantities 
of potatoes, beets, onions, turnips, squashes and 
corn being raised, often sufficient for a year’s 
consumption. 
The wages for common laborers for the round 
trip from St. Louis to Fort Union and back again 
to St. Louis, the whole occupying fifteen or six¬ 
teen months, were two hundred and twenty dol¬ 
lars for the round trip. Carpenters and black¬ 
smith were paid three hundred a year. The 
traders were paid five hundred dollars a year. 
The store and warehouse, or stores, were built 
on each side of the gate, and on the side next 
to the interior of the fort the two buildings were 
connected by a gate similar to the main gate, the 
space between the buildings and stockade being 
fenced across so that here was a large strong 
room without any roof or covering. Really it 
FORT UNION. 
From a drawing made by Alexander Murray, April Hj, 1S45. 
le quantities to St. Louis. Their great marrow 
nes are also delicate morsels for the hunters 
'd the Indians. The consumption of these 
-imals so indispensable in the interior of North 
nerica is immense. To the Indians they are 
■iat the reindeer is to the Lapps and the seal 
the Eskimo. It would be difficult to estimate 
consumption of this animal which every year 
pws less in number, and which is always being 
:>hed back. The fur company alone has sent 
a single year forty-two thousand buffalo cow 
; ns which are sold in the United States at 
3ut four dollars a piece. Fort Union con¬ 
ges annually as food six to eight hundred 
on, and all the other forts in proportion, 
'tny Indians live almost exclusively on the flesh 
these animals whose hides they sell after 
'•'ing reserved so much as may be needed 
their clothing, their tents and their articles 
leather. So wrote Maximilian, seventy-five 
irs ago. 
n the years 1872-3 Mr. James Stuart, then at 
rt Peck on the Missouri River, gathered from 
iversation with trappers, old traders, guides 
1 interpreters an account of adventure on the 
shells, axes, hatchets, etc. Alcohol was the prin¬ 
cipal article of trade, until after the passing of 
an act of Congres, June, 30, 1834, prohibiting it 
under sever penalties. Before that time there 
were no restrictions on the traffic. 
St. Louis was the point from which the traders 
brought their goods. They started from there 
with Mackinaw boats, each fifty feet long, ten 
feet wide on the bottom, and twelve feet on top, 
and four feet deep, loaded with about fourteen 
tons of merchandise to the boat, and each with 
a crew of about twelve men. The date of de¬ 
parture was usually about the first of March, or 
as soon as the ice went out of the river. The 
journey to Fort Union occupied six months, the 
boat having to be cordelled, that is towed, the 
greater part of the way, by men walking along 
the bank pulling a line attached to the boat. 
Each spring, as soon as the ice went out of 
the river, boats would start from Fort Union for 
St. Louis, each loaded with about three thousand 
robes or their equivalent in other fur, and with 
a crew of five men at each boat. This down¬ 
river trip occupied about thirty days. All em¬ 
ployees in the Indian country lived entirely on 
was a large pen. In each store about five feet 
from the ground was a hole eighteen inches 
square, with a strong shutter, fastening inside 
the store, opening into the space or room be¬ 
tween the gates. When the Indians wished to 
trade, the inner gate was closed; a man would 
stand at the outer gate until the Indians that 
wanted to trade, or as many as could crowd into 
the place had passed in. Then he would lock the 
outer gate and go through the trade hole into 
the store. Through the hole the Indians would 
then pass to the trader whatever each one had to 
trade, and the trader would throw out of the 
hole whatever the Indian wanted to the value 
in trade of the article received. When these 
people had finished trading, they were turned 
out and another lot admitted. By this means 
the Indians were entirely at the mercy of the 
traders, for they were penned up, and could all 
be killed through loop holes without danger to 
the trader. 
Fort Union stood until the year 1868, when 
by order of the commanding officer at Fort 
Buford, which had been built five miles below 
Fort Union, its remains were pulled down. 
