want into which their improvidence too often plunges them; and the example of an inflexible straightforwardness serves to gain their confidence. This moral preponderance, and the admiration of the Indian for the superior knowledge and arts of the Europeans, explain how a mere handful of white men, scattered over an enormous territory, not only lead a life of perfect security, but exercise an almost absolute power over a native population outnumbering them at least. several hundred times. The Indians have in course of time acquired many new wants, and have thus become more and more dependent on the white traders. The savage hunter is no longer the free, self-dependent man, who, without any foreign assistance, was able to make and manufacture, with his own hands, all the weapons and articles needed for his maintenance. Without English firearms and fishing-gear, without iron-ware and woollen blankets, he could no longer exist, and the unfortunate tribe on which the Company should close its stores would soon perish for want. "History," says Professor Hind," 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."

The standard of exchange in all mercantile transactions with the natives is a beaver skin, the relative value of which, as originally established by the traders, differs considerably from the present worth of the articles represented by it; but the Indians are averse to change. They receive their principal outfit of clothing and ammunition on credit in the autumn, to be repaid by their winter hunts; the amount intrusted to each of the hunters varying with their reputations for industry and skill.

The furs which, in the course of the year, are accumulated in the various forts or trading-stations, are transported in the short time during which the rivers and lakes are navigable, and in the manner described at the beginning of the chapter, to York Factory, or Moose Factory, on Hudson's Bay, to Montreal or Vancouver, and shipped from thence mostly to London. From the more distant posts in the interior, the transport often requires several seasons; for travelling is necessarily very slow when rapids and portages continually interrupt navigation, and the long winter puts a stop to all intercourse whatever.

The goods from Europe, consisting (besides those mentioned above) of printed cotton or silk handkerchiefs, or neck-cloths, of beads, and the universal favorite tobacco, require at least as much time to find their way into the distant interior; and thus the Company is not seldom obliged to wait for four, five, or six years before it receives its returns for the articles sent from London. It must, however, be confessed, that it amply repays itself for the tediousness of delay, for Dr. Armstrong was told by the Esquimaux of Cape Bathurst-a tribe in the habit of trading with the Indians from the Mackenzie, who are in direct communication with the Hudson's Bay Company's agents-that for three silver-fox skins—which sometimes fetch as high a price as twenty-five or thirty guineas apiece at the annual sale of the Company-they had got from the traders cooking utensils which might be worth eight shillings and sixpence!

The value of the skins annually imported into England by the Company

amounts to about £150,000 or £200,000. Besides, many of its furs are bartered for Russian-American peltry, and a large quantity is exported direct to China.

After this brief account of one of the most remarkable mercantile associations of any age, some remark on the chief fur-bearing animals of the Hudson's

SWAMP FORMED BY DESERTED BEAVER-DAM.

Bay territory may not be without interest. Among these, the black bear, muskwa, or baribal (Ursus americanus), is one of the most valuable, as his long hair-unlike that of the brown or the white bear-is beautifully smooth and glossy. He inhabits the forest regions of North America, but migrates according to the seasons. In spring he seeks his food in the thickets along the banks of the rivers or lakes; in summer he retreats into the forests; in winter he either wanders farther to the south, or hollows out a kind of lair beneath the root of an overthrown tree, where, as the cold is more or less severe, he either finds a retreat after his excursions, or hibernates buried in the snow. He feeds chiefly on berries, grain, acorns, roots, eggs, and honey; though, when pressed by hunger, he will attack other quadrupeds. He climbs upon trees or rocks. with great agility, and, being very watchful, is not easily got at in summer. Sometimes, however, his caution brings about his destruction; for, from fear of some possible danger, or at the slightest noise, he rises on his hind legs to look over the bushes under which he lies concealed, and thus offers a mark to the bullet of the hunter. In the winter, when the snow betrays his traces, he is more easily shot, and his skin and flesh are then also in the best condition. In spite of his apparent clumsiness and stolidity, the muskwa is more alert than the brown bear, whom he nearly approaches in size; he runs so fast that no man can overtake him, and is an excellent swimmer and climber. When attacked, he generally retreats as fast as possible into the forest; but if escape is impossible, he turns furiously upon his pursuers, and becomes exceedingly dangerous. Dogs alone are incapable of mastering him, as he is always ready to receive them with a stroke of his fore paw; but they are very useful in driving him up a tree, and thus giving the hunter an opportunity of hitting him in the right spot. When in a state of captivity, the baribal, in his mild and goodhumored disposition, is distinguished from the brown and white bear. Hist fur is also much more valuable than that of the brown bear.

It is not yet fully ascertained whether the American brown bear is identical with that of Europe; the resemblance, however, is close. In summer he wanders to the shores of the Polar Sea, and indulges more frequently in animal food than the baribal. He is even said to attack man when pressed by hunger; but all those whom Sir John Richardson met with ran away as soon as they saw him.

As the grizzly bear (Ursus ferox) is found on the Rocky Mountains up to the latitude of 61°, he undoubtedly deserves a place among the sub-arctic animals. The skin of this most formidable of the ursine race, who is about nine feet long, and is said to attain the weight of eight hundred pounds, is but little prized in the fur-trade. He is the undoubted monarch of his native wilds, for even the savage bison flies at his approach.

Although the raccoon (Procyon lotor) is more commonly found in Canada and the United States, yet he is also an inhabitant of the Hudson's Bay territories, where he is met with up to 56° N. lat. This interesting little animal, which, like the bears, applies the sole of its foot to the ground in walking, has an average length of two feet from the nose to the tail, which is about ten inches long. Its color is grayish-brown, with a dusky line running from the top of

the head down the middle of the face, and ending below the eyes. The tail is very thickly covered with hair, and is annulated with several black bars on a yellowish-white ground. Its face is very like that of the fox, whom it equals in cunning, while its active and playful habits resemble those of the monkey. Its favorite haunts are the woods, near streams or lakes, for one of its most marked peculiarities, from which it has received its specific name of lotor, or the washer, is its habit of plunging its dry food into water before eating it. The raccoon devours almost any thing that comes in his way-fruits and grain of all sorts, birds' nests, mice, grasshoppers, beetles: while the waters yield him fishes, crabs, and oysters, which he is very expert in opening. His fur forms no inconsiderable article of commerce, and is very fashionable in Russia. In 1841, 111,316 raccoon skins were imported into St. Petersburg, and more than half a million were stapled in Leipzig, intended, no doubt, for smuggling across the frontier.

The fur of the American glutton, or wolverine, is much used for muffs and linings; yet, from its being a notorious robber of their traps, the animal is as much hated by the Indian hunters as the dog-fish by the northern fishermen.

The Hudson's Bay territories can not boast of the sable, but the American pine marten (Martes abietum) is not much inferior in value, as its dark-brown fur is remarkably fine, thick, and glossy. It frequents the woody districts, where it preys on birds, and all the smaller quadrupeds from the hare to the mouse. Even the squirrel is incapable of escaping the pine marten, and after having vaulted and climbed from tree to tree, sinks at last exhausted into its gripe.

The pekan, or woodshock (Martes canadensis), the largest of the marten family, is also the one which most richly supplies the fur-market. It is found over the whole of North America, and generally lives in burrows near the banks of rivers, as it principally feeds on the small quadrupeds that frequent the water.

Several species of ermine inhabit the Hudson's Bay territories, but their skins are of no great importance in the fur-trade. Like many other species of the marten family, they eject, when irritated or alarmed, a fluid of a fetid odor; but in this respect they are far surpassed by the chinga (Mephitis chinga), whose secretion has so intolerable a smell that the least quantity suffices to produce nausea and a sense of suffocation. This animal is frequently found near Hudson's Bay, whence it extends farther to the north. In spite of the formidable means of defense with which it has been armed by nature, it is of use to man, for its black and white striped fur (which, as may easily be supposed, never appears in the European market) provides the Indians with coverings or tobacco-pouches. Before seizing the chinga, they irritate it with a long switch until it has repeatedly emptied the glands from which the noxious vapor issues; then suddenly springing upon it, they hold it up by the tail and dispatch it.

The mink (Vison americanus), another member of the weasel family, is one of the most important fur-bearing animals of the Hudson's Bay territories. It resembles the small European fish-otter (Vison lutreola), but its skin is far more valuable the brown hair with which it is covered being much softer and thick

er.

As its toes are connected by a small web, it is an excellent swimmer, and as formidable to the salmon or trout in the water as to the hare on land.

The Canadian fish-otter (Lutra canadensis) far surpasses the European species, both in size and in the beauty of its glossy brown skin. It occurs as far northward as 66° or 67° lat., and is generally taken by sinking a steel trap near the mouth of its burrow. It has the habit of sliding or climbing to the top of a ridge of snow in winter, or of a sloping moist bank in summer, where, lying on the belly, with the fore feet bent backward, it gives itself with the hind legs an impulse which sends it swiftly down the eminence. This schoolboy sport it continues for a long time.

The red fox (Vulpes fulvus), which is found throughout the Hudson's Bay territories, has likewise a much finer fur than our common fox. It is of a bright ferruginous red on the head, back, and sides; beneath the chin it is white, while the throat and neck are of a dark gray, and the under parts of the body, toward the tail, are of a very pale red. The crossed fox (Canis decussatus), thus named from the black cross on its shoulders, is still more valuable; its skin—the color of which is a sort of gray, resulting from the mixture of black and white hair-being worth four or five guineas. Peltry still more costly is furnished by the black or silvery fox (Canis argentatus), whose copious and beautiful fur is of a rich and shining black or deep brown color, with the longer or exterior hairs of a silvery white. Unfortunately it is of such rare occurrence that not more than four or five are annually brought to a trading-post.

The Canada lynx, or pishu (Lynx canadensis), is smaller than the European species, but has a finer fur, those skins being most valued which approach to a pale or whitish color, and on which the spots are most distinct. It chiefly feeds on the hare (Lepus americanus), which is not much larger than a rabbit, and is found on the banks of the Mackenzie as far north as 68° or 69°.

Still nearer to the Pole, the ice-hare (Lepus glacialis) ranges as far as the Parry Islands (75° N. lat.), where it feeds on the arctic willow, and other high northern plants. Its favorite resorts are the stony districts, where it easily finds a refuge; in winter it burrows in the snow. In summer its back is grayish white, but as the cold increases, it becomes white, with the exception of the tips of the ears, which remain constantly black.

Formerly the beaver (Castor fiber) was the most important of the fur-bearing animals of the Hudson's Bay territories. In the year 1743, 127,000 beaver skins were exported from Montreal to La Rochelle, and 26,700 by the Hudson's Bay Company to London. At present, the exportation hardly amounts to onethird of this quantity. As the beaver chiefly lives on the barks of the willow, the beech, and the poplar, it is not found beyond the forest region; but along the banks of the Mackenzie it reaches a very high latitude.

The musk-rat, ondatra or musquash (Fiber zibethicus)-which is about the size of a small rabbit, and of a reddish-brown color-is called by the Indians the younger brother of the beaver, as it has similar instincts. Essentially a bank-haunting animal, it is never to be seen at any great distance from the water, where it swims and dives with consummate ease, aided greatly by the webs which connect the hinder toes. It drives a large series of tunnels into