The Hudson's Bay Company.

For more than two centuries British North America has been occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, the Hudson's Bay company more than two centuries British North America has been occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, which has turned the country to the best account possible by utilizing the sole portion of its wealth which, on account of the barbarous nature of the region and its almost unparalleled completeness of isolation, could be profitably exported. This is its furs. At various periods attempts have been made to give an impetus to the pursuit of other branches of industry by the formation of subordinate companies; but, like the dwellings of the region, such institutions have hitherto held their existence by a frail tenure, amounting almost to an artificial life.

The fur trade alone possesses strong vitality. Although this branch of industry, in its relations to the few small settlements of the country, has been much and most ignorantly abused by one-sided reasoners, of recent years, as the all-devouring monster which monopolizes the resources of the territory, the fairer course would be to describe it as the motive spring which gives life to anything in the way of business existing there. Furs compose the only species of merchandise in the country the export of which is remunerative, and, without them, even what market exists for other commodities would speedily disappear. The influence of the trade permeates all classes; everybody talks fur, and every available position in the accessible parts of the territory is seized upon by free traders for the collection of peltries. But while many are gathered in this way, and traders speedily grow rich, their furs form scarcely a drop in the bucket when compared to the vast collections of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is only a vast corporation, possessed of unlimited means, long experience, and immense facilities for transportation, that can hope to compete with this last great monopoly.

It is, of course, to be expected that, as the wave of population rolls westward, the agricultural and other latent resources possessed by the immense territory will be developed, and the fortunes of the dwellers in that remote region no longer depend solely upon the success of the warfare maintained by the Indian against the wild beasts of the North. Still, it is undeniable that, until the present decade, the trade from a single department alone brings annually to the English market an average value of 150,000 Pounds in furs, and in the aggregate furnishes the world with three-fourths of its peltries, has presented the only means of commercially benefiting the aboriginal tribes, or of turning to profitable account the inaccessible regions over which its operations extend.

The Hudson's Bay Company is a wheel within a wheel, consisting of the company proper, which furnishes the capital stock, and the partnership of the Fur Trade, which is employed to carry out the actual workings of the business. Under the charter, the supreme control of its affairs is vested in a Board consisting of a Governor, Deputy Governor and a Committee of five Directors, all annually chosen by the stockholders at a meeting held each November at the company's house in London. These functionaries delegate their authority to an officer resident in their American possessions, called the Governor-in-chief of Rupert's Land, who acts as their representative. His commission extends over all their colonial possessions, and his tenure of office is unlimited regarding time. Sir George Simpson, the Arctic explorer, in company with Dease, was the first person appointed to fill this high office, which was instituted immediately after the coalition of the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies in 1821. Previous to that date the various districts had been ruled by numerous petty officers, subject to no efficient control, and practically answerable to none for abuse of power.

The authority of the Governor-in-chief is supreme, except during the session of his council, which is held once a year, and continues its formal sittings for two or three days. The Governor is the president or chairman of this council, representing the interests of the Board of Directors in England. It is called the "Council for the Northern Department of Rupert's Land," yet it assumes a general authority over all other departments, and, to quote the words of the preamble to its official minutes, it convenes to establish rules and regulations for conducting the business of the said department, and to investigate the trade of the past year.

As before stated, a council for the Northern department is held every year, and at it, the Governor-in-chief is invariably present; but he, also, from time to time, has held councils for other departments, though his usual plan is to leave the details to be managed by competent officials on the spot, and, by correspondence, exercise general jurisdiction over the trade. His council is composed of the highest rank of officers in the service, called Chief Factors, whose duty and right is to sit at its meetings whenever their attendance is practicable. Members of the second rank of commissioned officers, called Chief Traders, when they can arrange to be present, are also requested to sit in the council, which is held with closed doors, and when so invited, the traders are permitted to debate and vote equally with the factors. The chief factors and chief traders together constitute the partnership in what is called the "Fur Trade." From this the profits of the Hudson's Bay Company may be said to be entirely derived; it constitutes how the company avails itself of the right to trade, which it possesses in its territories. Vacancies in its ranks are immediately filled up as they occur from the death or retirement of its members, the qualification necessary to obtain the commission being a majority of the votes of all the chief factors. The candidates for a factor- ship are necessarily traders, while those for a vacant tradership are from the ranks of salaried clerks, seldom of less than fourteen years' standing in the service.

The members of the Fur Trade, also called " Wintering Partners," furnish none of the capital stock, and receive their commissions merely as the reward of long and faithful service. Their pay is a definite number of shares of stock, never exceeding a certain limit. Of these, a chief factor possesses two, and a chief trader one, so that their emoluments are directly affected by the fluctuations of the trade equally with those of other stockholders. While the Fur Trade is recognized as a partnership by the company, it is allowed no distinct organization. No annual election of officers forming anything like the company's London Board takes place among the partners of the Fur Trade, who, scattered over the vast territories of the company, could not, under existing circumstances, take united action in any matter, how nearly soever it might affect their corporate interests. The only approximation to a common action which exists is afforded by the meeting of the annual council, at which all factors within practicable distance are entitled, and traders, under similar circumstances, are invited to attend. The partners in the Fur Trade are, moreover, allowed no representative at the company's house in London. An annual dispatch, bearing the signatures of the Board, and treating the different matters of interest then pending in connection with the company's affairs, is addressed each year to the council of the Northern Department, and is answered by its president. But this constitutes the sole occasion in which the company as a body approaches the Fur Trade a body in the whole course of their business. On the other hand, the Board in London has a special representative in the Fur Trade in the person of the Governor-in-chief. He is president of all councils of officers held in the country, and there is no instance of his being outvoted by any such body.

Under these circumstances, it is scarcely to be wondered at that an occasional murmur arises from the partners in the Fur Trade, when a series of unfortunate years has brought them but little remuneration. Still, on the whole, the relations of the two bodies are harmonious, and the wintering partner is well paid for his labour. Except for personal clothing, the company furnishes everything, even to the paid clerk and the men under him.

The partners in the Fur Trade hold their rights as a body, concerning the stockholders of the company, in virtue of a deed, dated 1834, under which the commissions to individuals are issued. These commissions, held by the company, entitle the officers holding them to their share in the profits and all the other privileges they enjoy.* The vast operations of the company, extending over so great an extent of territory, with establishments remotely connected, and at times only accessible by the accident of favourable stages of water, demand an army of employees, in each of whom the prosecution of its peculiar business necessitates certain well-defined mental and physical characteristics and rigid training in the duties about his situation. No mere neophyte assumes even a minor command in the company's affairs, and the fortunate winner of a higher station must invariably be well qualified for his place by long identification with its active duties as well as traditions. Although itself an entirely English corporation, its officers in the fur
* For most of the information contained in the foregoing pages of this chapter, the author is indebted to the valuable work on "Red River," by J. J. Hargrave, F. R. G. S.
country are nearly all natives of Scotland and the Orkneys. More than one consideration, probably, contributed its weight in the selection of this nationality as its working representatives, viz., their proverbial shrewdness and propensity for barter; their generally vigorous physique and love of adventurous life; steady perseverance in the attainment of an end; close economy, and the giving and receiving of the last half-penny in trade; and, above all, a certain Presbyterian honesty begotten of the Established Kirk.

Successful applicants for a place in the company's service a service highly esteemed and much sought after in "placing," the youth of the well-to-do Scotch bourgeoise are enlisted invariably at an early age generally from sixteen to eighteen ”having first passed rigid scrutiny as regards educational attainments, moral character, and, above all, physical build; and having, moreover, tendered such letters of recommendation as could not well fail of success. The nominal term of enlistment is five years, although the more direct understanding is that the applicant shall devote his life to the trade an event which happens in nearly every instance, the style of living being calculated to unfit him for active duty in any other vocation. With the arrival of the annual requisition for additional help from the fur country, the accepted applicant is notified to hold himself in readiness, and sails for York Factory, on the Bay coast, by return packet. With his departure, his salary begins. The magnificent sum of £20 per annum is his, together with rations, quarters, etc., and personal clothing from the company's shops at cost and ten percent. As this latter expenditure is the only one he is obliged to make, or, indeed, can well be tempted to indulge in, the bulk of his yearly stipend remains from year to year in the hands of his employer at compound interest.

Arrived at York Factory, he was generally sent to pass the first five or ten years of his apprenticeship in the extreme northern districts of Mackenzie River and Athabaska. This is done so that he may at once be cut off from anything tending to distract him from his duties; in order, also, to be drilled in the practical working of the Indian trade; and because of an established rule in the service which starts the apprentice at isolated posts in remote districts, bringing him up finally in the great depot forts on the borders of civilization, thus acquainting him with every duty pertinent to the trade. The occupations of his first years are those of salesman behind the counter in the trading shop and an occasional trip with the half-breed traders attached to the post to the various Indian camps in the vicinity for the barter of goods for peltries. The cultivation of the Spartan virtue of truth also obtains, no misrepresentations being permitted to affect sales of that service. In the discharge of such minor duties, a few years glide uneventfully away, and the next advancement brings him to the accountant's office. Upon the assumption of this position he passes in the race for promotion to another class of apprentices, probably enlisted on the same date as himself, known as "postmasters." These are generally natives of the country, half-breeds of the better class for the most part, yet lacking the requisite education to successfully compete with the Scotch importations. They are older men, as a rule, and are assigned the duty of superintending the labouring men, of whom each post has its complement, and have, in fact, a general supervision of the rougher details of the trade; but are entitled, nevertheless, to the title of company's gentlemen, as distinguishing them from the lower order of employees entirely outside the line of promotion. The advancement of a postmaster is necessarily slow, and they seldom attain a position higher than that of a clerk in charge of a small post, although instances are on record where a high place has been reached, and filled with much credit and pecuniary profit.

At the accountant's desk the apprentice now known as a clerk ”remains generally until fourteen years of service have elapsed, unless placed in charge of a fort, other than a depot, as chief clerk. During this period he has been, in most instances, gradually nearing the great forts forming the depots of supplies and forwarding, or the headquarters of a district, by a series of transfers from the unimportant and remote posts whence he started to those still larger and more contiguous to the desired centre. His salary, too, has increased from £20 to 100. He has lived entirely in the mess rooms of the posts at which he resided; his associations have been with his elders and superiors in the ranks of the service; his conversation for years has been for the most part upon subjects relative to the trade; its traditions have become familiar to him, it's routine almost a second nature; his habits of life are fixed, and sit so easily upon him as to suggest no desire for change; in short, he has fallen so completely into the groove, become so much a part of the machinery of the trade, and so unacquainted with the requirements of any other business, as to render a change both impolitic and impossible. His ambition points out one way to a higher rank in the service he has chosen. He pictures to himself, doubtless, in a vague and misty way, a certain far-off day when, with the accumulations of years, he will return to the world; never thinking that the world he will find will prove so strange that a cursory glance will frighten him back to his solitudes again.

At the expiration of fourteen years of service, if a vacancy occurs, the clerk steps from the ranks of salaried employees into the partnership of the Fur Trade and assumes the title of chief trader. Upon the assumption of this dignity, in place of a yearly stipend, his emoluments take the form of a pro rata of the annual profits of the trade, and he is appointed to the command of some important post. Here his duties are a general oversight of the business immediately connected with the establishment and vicinity. The thorough practical knowledge of all the petty details of the business, acquired in the years of his previous service, enables him to judge of their correct performance by those now under him. He also has now, an opportunity to devise new methods of increasing the trade, of developing pet projects previously conceived, and of adding proportionately to his share of profit. The field opened before him is sufficiently wide for the employment of all his energies, and the desire to rival his peers is necessarily strong. He still retains in his new position the usual allowances of food, quarters, etc., from the company, as in the days of his clerkship; but the feeling that his pecuniary emoluments in a measure depend upon his energies, adds new life and vigour to his movements. He becomes alert, restless, and active, and indulges in much speculation relative to the increase of trade until death or retirement opens the way for entrance into the ranks of a chief factor the highest class of officials known to the service.

In the exercise of the functions of this office, he assumes control of a district in many instances as large as a European kingdom with headquarters at the largest fort within its limits, and general supervision over all other posts. He directs the course of trade, erects new establishments, orders the necessary outfits for the year, suggests needed reforms to the council, and in his capacity as chief magistrate of his principality, rules supreme. He has attained the summit of the ladder, with the exception perhaps of governorship, and can rest secure. The accumulations of many years, which he has had little opportunity of spending, have by this time placed him beyond the reach of pecuniary care, and he finally resigns upon half pay, to visit the scenes of his youth for a season, then to return and pass the remainder of his days in the far settlements of the isolated country where his life has been spent.

As a man, the wintering partner is eminently social and given to generous hospitality. His years of isolation have only served to render him more gregarious when the opportunity presents itself. He throws his doors open to the congenial stranger, setting apart a room for his use, ordering an additional cover at the table, giving instructions to the groom relative to the free use of the favourite cob by his temporary guest, and considering all the honour as done to himself. Physically robust, he delights in athletic sports, pedestrian excursions, boating, equestrian feats, and, when occasion presents, in prolonged convivialities with his old associates. As a family man, he is exemplary. It has happened that, rendered lonesome by his isolated position and cut off from society, in the days of his clerkship he has petitioned the Governor for the privilege of marriage; and, gaining consent has taken to wife a daughter of the land. If matrimonial desire has overtaken him further on, however, and when more advanced in rank and means, he has probably ordered a wife from the House in London, and having received her by return packet, married out of hand. And to the credit of the wintering partner be it said, that he generally becomes a model Benedict, although, in some instances, had he been personally present, his selection would have been different. We recall a case of this kind, where the party having received and married his wife, receipted to the House for her something in this style: " Received one wife in fair condition. Hope she will prove good, though she is certainly a very rum one to look at!

"Generally speaking, Manitoba is selected as a place of residence by servants of the company who have passed their lives in the service. Many of the officers, whose desire to return to their native country has withered through lapse of time and the influence of family ties formed in the country, have bought and settled down on it for life, forming among themselves the aristocracy of the wilderness. Owning the most handsome residences in the province, social by nature, and supplied with abundant means, they are given generous hospitality. The latch string is always out to the stranger, and they delight in meeting upon each other's hearthstones and recounting the wildlife of the past.

Such are the relations of master and man in the company's service and the routine order of advancement which obtains in every instance. Had the territories of the company continued as isolated and inaccessible as they have been hitherto regarded, there is no reason to doubt that the status quo of employed and employer would have remained unchanged till the end of the chapter. It has happened, however, that the transfer of the country to Canada, at the beginning of the present decade, has attracted a considerable tide of immigration to the new Province of Manitoba, and up the fertile belt of Saskatchewan. And while the northern part of North America is still as much in the possession of the company as ever, the rapid settlement and development of the southern borders of the territory, and the consequent opportunities for speculation and high wages, have served to dissipate the quiet content of the company's officers. Within the last decade, some of them have left the service and engaged with free fur-trading firms, prosecuting businesses in opposition to the company, or have carried on the fur trade on their account. Especially has been the case with the salaried clerks, upon whom the company relies to fill the vacancies in the Fur Trade. The factors and traders still retain their positions from the fact of receiving their pay from the profits of the whole trade, which, in the aggregate, make up a higher salary than they could hope to obtain elsewhere. The average income of the two ranks of officers in the Fur Trade is, for a trader $2,500, and for a factor of $5,000, always including in addition the support of himself and his family. Place this sum at compound interest annually, and the rapidity with which it accumulates will be readily seen. Half pay is only given for a term of five years after leaving the service.

With the clerk of five or ten years' standing, however, it is different. He could expect for years only a nominal annual salary, the equal of which he can command for one or two months' labour under the new order of things, if once free from the service. His prospects of accumulating a competency for the future, outside the ranks of the company, though not so certain as within, are yet sufficiently promising; so he leaves. Under this condition of things, the company finds themselves driven to alter, in some measure, their time-honoured programme, and increase the annual stipends of clerks and apprentices to a nearer approximation with salaries paid that class in civilized life. Clerks who have 'withdrawn from the service are invited to return under new rates, the regular line of promotion being preserved as before. The extent of territory over which the Hudson's Bay Company carries on its trade, and throughout which depots and forts are established, is very great. As the crow flies, the distance between Fort Vancouver, on the Oregon, and Confidence, on Bear Lake, exceeds 1350 geographical miles, and the space between the company's posts on the Labrador coast, or their station at Sault Ste. Marie, and Fort Simpson, on the Pacific, measure more than 2500 miles. The area of the country under its immediate influence is about four and a half million square miles, or more than one-third greater than the whole extent of Europe. This vast hunting country is everywhere sprinkled over with lakes, and in all directions inter- intersected by rivers and lesser streams, abounding with edible fish. East of the Rocky Mountains are vast prairies over which roams the bison, lord of the plains; while west of these mountains the land is densely timbered. The most northerly station, east of the Rocky Mountains, is on the Mackenzie River, within the Arctic circle; so intense is the cold at this point that axes tempered especially can alone be used for cutting and splitting wood, ordinary hatchets breaking as though made of glass. West of the Rockies, the most northern station is Fort Simpson, situated near the Sitka River, the boundary between Alaska and British Columbia. Throughout this vast extent of territory, regular communication is kept up between the Governor and the numerous scattered posts, and supplies are forwarded to all the districts with regularity and exactness truly wonderful.

The chartered territories and circuit of commercial relations of the Hudson's Bay Company are divided into vast sections, named the Northern, Southern, Montreal and Western departments. Of these the Northern department is situated between Hudson's Bay and the Rocky Mountains; the Southern, between James' Bay and Canada, comprehending, also, East Main, on the eastern coast of Hudson's Bay. The Montreal department comprehends the extent of the business in Canada, while the Western comprises the regions west of the Rocky Mountains. The depots to which supplies from the civilized world are periodically sent, and which form the keys of these various sections, are York Factory, in the Northern department; Moose Factory, in the Southern; Montreal, in the Canada's, and Victoria, Vancouver's Island, in the West. In the Northern department, which includes the grand bulk of the chartered territories, in which alone, until recently, the burden of government fell upon the company, the most important interests of the business are concentrated. Its vast extent necessitates a depot for the "inland districts," which exists at Norway House, on Lake Winnipeg; and many causes have combined to render Fort Garry, in which stored the goods passing over the United States route, the centre of business, and a large depot for the " plain districts." It is also the residence of the Governor-in-chief, and the headquarters of the civil service of the company, while York Factory, on Hudson's Bay, is the headquarters of the accountants' department.

These four departments are again divided into smaller portions called districts, of which there are fifty-three, and each of which is under the direction of a superintending officer. These again are sub-divided into one hundred and fifty-two minor establishments, forts, posts, and outposts. There is connected with each district a depot to which all the supplies for the district are forwarded periodically, and to which all the furs and produce from the forts are sent to be shipped to England. Some of the depot forts have a complement of thirty or forty men, mechanics, labourers, servants, etc.; but most of them have only ten, five, four, or even two, besides the superintending officer. As in most instances a space of forest or plain, varying from fifty to three hundred miles in length, intervenes between each of these establishments, and the inhabitants have only the society of each other, some idea may be formed of the solitary lives led by many of the company's servants. But every man knows his place and his work; the laws regulating their duties are clearly defined and well understood, and are enforced with strictness and rigour truly military or naval. Hence the harmonious working of the whole extensive and complicated machinery, and the wonderful financial results of its operations.

The term fort, as applied to the trading posts of the Fur Land, is strictly applicable to but two; most of them do not merit the name. The only two in the country that are real, bonafide forts, are Upper and Lower Fort Garry, in the Province of Manitoba. The others are merely half a dozen frame buildings defended by wooden pickets or stockades; and a few, where the Indians are quiet and harmless, are entirely destitute of defence of any kind. Upper Fort Garry, as the residence of the Governor, and the central post of the Northern department, may be considered the most important fort of the company. Its business consists of trading goods for cash, furs, or country produce; of forwarding the supplies for certain large districts to their destination in the interior, and of banking and transacting a variety of business with the inhabitants of the settlement roundabout. How these affairs are carried on consists of a bonded warehouse, a sale shop, a general office, and sundry stores for pemmican and other articles of a special nature. Each of these departments is furnished with its staff of clerks, warehousemen and labourers.

Lower Fort Garry, more commonly called the Stone Fort, in allusion to the material of which its houses are constructed, is perhaps a better sample of the larger posts of the company than any within the ordinary range of travel. It is situated on the west bank of the Red River of the North, about twenty miles from the foot of Lake Winnipeg. The banks in this locality are very high, and, in consequence, the fort is favourably situated for the avoidance of floods during periods of inundation, by no means of infrequent occurrence. The business of the establishment, which is one of the subordinate posts of the Red River district, consists of farming, retail dealing, and boat freighting. At this post, during the summer months, boat- brigades are outfitted for the trip to York Factory and other posts inland. The buildings consist of officers' and servants' dwellings, shops and stores. These are all enclosed within a stone wall, embracing an area of about one and a half acres, and pierced through its entire circuit with a tier of loopholes.

Entering through the huge gateway pierced in the centre of the east wall, facing the river, the first view is of the residence of the chief trader in command, and also of the clerks and upper class of employees under his charge. It is a long two-story stone building, with a broad piazza encircling it on three sides. A square plot of green sward surrounding it is fenced in with neat railing and kept in extremely good order. A broad gravel walk leads from the gateway to the piazza. Huge shade trees border it, and beds of waving and fragrant flowers load the business air with their perfume. In this building, the mess of the chief and his subordinates is held. Its hospitalities are extended in good old English style. A room is set apart for the use of the transient guest, who is free to come and go as he lists.

Except for the residence of the chief trader in charge, the buildings of the fort follow the course of the walls, and, facing inward, form a hollow square. Following this order, immediately at the left of the gateway is the trading store, devoted solely to the sale of goods. A large stone structure of three stories, it has within its walls nearly every article used in that climate. The sales room is a square apartment, with no attempt at ornament, no plaster, the ceiling merely the joists and flooring of the second flat, thickly studded with nails and hooks, from which are suspended various articles of trade. Along the side walls are box shelves, nearly two feet deep. On the floor within the counter are piled bales of goods, bundles of prints, hardware, etc.; and this space within the counter comprises almost the entire room. A small area is railed off near the door, sufficiently large to hold twenty standing customers. When this is filled, the remaining patrons must await their turn in the courtyard; and it is not at all an unusual sight to see from fifty to one hundred people standing quietly about outside until their time comes to be served. The best goods of all manufactures alone are sold here. No shoddy or inferior goods are ever imported or sold by the company. Everything is purchased direct from producers, and of a stipulated quality. The principal articles of trade are tea, sugar, calico, blankets, ammunition, fishing gear, and a kind of cloth, very thick and resembling blanketing, called duffle. Coffee is rarely sold, and green tea is almost unknown, the black only being used. Raw spirits are sold to a large extent in the posts immediately contiguous to settlements. In former times the sale of this latter article was permitted only upon two days of the year. On Christmas and the Queen's birthday, each head of a family was permitted to purchase from the stores of the company, upon an order countersigned by the Governor, one pint of spirits. In the event of spirits being required for medicinal purposes, the signature of both the Governor and attending physician was necessary.

Amidst this stock of merchandise, composed in so great a part of staple articles, may be found, nevertheless, an assortment of dress goods and gewgaws over a century old, old-time ruffs, stomachers, caps and whatnot; garments of antique cut and trim, articles of value, and apparel long since out of vogue are mixed up in a heterogeneous mass. What a day of delights and surprises would it prove to the ladies of the present age to toss and tumble all that collection of decayed finery! Yet, doubtless, much would be found apropos to the reigning fashions; for here, too, may be purchased the latest styles of wear upon Cheapside and Regent's Park kid gloves at fabulously low prices; made-up silks, Parisian bonnets, delicate foot gear, etc., with near neighbours of huge iron pots, copper cauldrons, and iron implements of grim aspect and indefinite weight, together with ships' cordage, oakum, pitch, and other marine necessities. Over this dispensary of needfuls and luxuries presides an accountant and two clerks, none of them get up in the elaborate costumes of the counter-waiters of civilization, but rather affecting buckskin coats, corduroy trousers, and the loudest styles of flannel shirts. Here all the multitudinous accounts of the fort are kept, a statement forwarded quarterly to the chief post of the district, and from thence sent to the company's great house in Fenchurch Street, London.

In the store, there is no such thing as exhibiting goods with a view of increasing the purchases of a probable customer. Whatever is asked for is produced, and, being paid for, the customer is ignored at once; his room is better than his company. There is, however, no need to urge the majority of its patrons to purchase. The nomadic half-breed or Indian brings his money, or whatever he may have to exchange, wrapped carefully in a handkerchief, places it upon the counter and begins to trade. First, he purchases what he needs; then, whatever he sees candy, chewing gum, fancy ties, in short, anything that tastes sweet or looks flashy. When all is spent, to the last half-penny, he trudges off with his happy wife his invariable companion when shopping quite contentedly, although probably in doubt about where his next meal is to come from.*

The currency with which business was transacted, until quite recently, consisted chiefly of promissory notes, issued by the company, redeemable by bills of exchange granted at sixty days' sight on the Governor, Deputy Governor and Committee in London. The notes were, however, readily redeemed in coins at Fort Garry, without deduction for discount, whenever presented; and being more easily carried than coin bore a corresponding value in the eyes of the inhabitants of the territory. It is reported that General Pope, when resident on duty as an officer of engineers, many years ago, at Pembina, having observed the preference evinced by the settlers for the company's notes, more than for American gold, actually instanced it to the Government as a symptom of the degraded state of ignorance in which the unhappy colonists were kept by the Hudson's Bay Company. The notes are about the size of a half-sheet of letter paper and are of three denominations one pound sterling, five shillings sterling and one shilling sterling. Besides these, however, there is a good deal of English and American gold and silver coins in circulation in the country.

Leaving the trading store, a succession of warehouses containing stores and supplies is next encountered.

The last and the most massive building, near the gateway, is the warehouse of packages destined for posts inland. These are goods imported from England and other countries, and to be used in the fur trade exclusively. In this vast bulk of merchandise, there is not a single package of over one hundred pounds weight. The greater portion weighs but eighty or ninety pounds, strongly packed, the cases lined with zinc and bound with iron. The packages are of this limited weight from the necessity of " portaging " them from river to river, sometimes a long distance, upon the shoulders of boatmen; and they must be strong to ensure safe transport over a thousand or more miles of rough travel. Twice annually this warehouse is emptied by the departure of the boat brigades for the interior and is often replenished by shipment from England. Summer is the busy season, as then all the freighting is carried on, and the accounts for the year are closed. It is also a time of much bustle, created by the constant arrivals and departures which take place at so central a point as Fort Garry, in a country where locomotion may be called the normal condition of the majority of the people during the summer months.

The wall surrounding the fort is about twelve feet high and flanked by two-story bastions or turrets at each corner. In the centre of the enclosure rises an immense double flagstaff, bearing the flag of the company, with its strange design, and still stranger motto, "Pro pelle cutem" skin for skin. Nearby stands the bell tower, at the signal of whose tones work begins and ends. When it announces the dinner hour the trading store is closed, and the customers are turned out to await the return of the clerks.

Outside the walls of the fort, but belonging to it, is situated a miniature village of many and varied industries. In neat dwellings reside the heads of the different departments of what may be termed the outdoor business of the company. Here dwells the chief engineer of all the steam power in use upon its ships, boats, mills, etc. Here also lives the farmer who directs the cultivation of the immense agricultural farm connected with the fort; the herdsman, who superintends the rearing and care of the droves of cattle, horses and other stock of the corporation; the miller in charge of the milling interests; the shipwright, who directs the building, launching and refitting of the company's fleet. In the rear of these dwellings are mess rooms for the accommodation of the workmen and the residences of the different overseers. Separate a little stand the flouring mills, brewery, ship-yards, machine shops, etc., all supplied with the latest labour-saving machinery. Scattered along the bank of the river lie moored or drawn up on the beach the miniature navy of the company; here a lake steamer, there river steamboats, then schooners, yachts and a whole school of whaleboats, with one mast, unstepped at will, and of three and a half tons burden, used in the freighting service, and requiring nine men as crew. Drawn upon the beach lie birch-bark canoes of all sizes and conditions, from the little one of a single passenger capacity to the long dispatch boat requiring thirteen navigators. The steam vessels are mostly manned by Americans; the sailing craft by the Orkney servants of the company, and the whaleboats by the native half-breeds. The birch-bark canoe is the Indian's buggy. One or two steam tugs whistle and puff rapidly up and down the stream, towing rafts of lumber, boats laden with limestone, firewood, etc. The remaining surroundings of the fort are made up of a well-kept vegetable garden, extensive stock corrals and a large farm under perfect cultivation.

At a distance of some twenty miles, at the foot of Lake Winnipeg, among the marshes and lowlands, are the cattle ranches of the company. There the stock is herded during the summer and housed in winter, being only driven to the uplands during the spring and fall freshets. The generally high price of cattle makes stock-raising extremely profitable, and the wandering life attendant upon their care is particularly suited to the native herdsmen. The stock is collected every spring and branded, and such a number is selected as may be required for work purposes during the summer months. Oxen are used for freighting to a large extent; trains of several hundred, harnessed singly in carts, crossing the prairies, being not an unusual sight. The majority of the large forts in the Southern country have their stockyards and farms, and the amount of wealth accumulated in this way is enormous.

The business transacted at the Stone Fort, if we except freighting and some minor details of the fur trade, may be presented as a fair sample of that carried on at the majority of the large posts contiguous to settlements; and its architecture and. surroundings, if wood be substituted for stone, identically the same. But the great depot posts in the North are of another character, and of one we wish to speak.

Churchill Factory is situated about five miles from Hudson's Bay, upon a small bay on the Churchill River, and above it, extending a distance of seven miles, to the lower rapids, is a large marsh. The factory receives its supplies once a year from a vessel which arrives in the latter part of August or, early in September and starts back upon her homeward voyage after a delay of about ten days, the severity of the climate rendering it imprudent to make a longer stay. By the middle of November, the Churchill is enchained in ice, on which even the spring tides, though they rise ten or twelve feet above the ordinary level, have no effect. Not till the middle of June does the sun, getting the mastery of the frost, compel it to release its hold and let the river flow on its course. By the middle of October, the marshes and swamps are frozen over, and the earth is covered with snow. By the latter end of December snow covers the stockade which surrounds the factory from six to ten feet deep. Through this mass pathways about five feet in width are cut. Late in April, the snow begins to melt away. From the end of October to the end of April, it is possible to walk only on snowshoes.

In such a climate, much of what is done by the white inhabitants has a direct reference to their self-preservation. Before annual supplies of coal were forwarded from England, all the fuel that could be collected in the neighbourhood of the factory was barely sufficient to supply a single fire in the morning and evening. During the remainder of the day the only recourse of the company's servants, when the weather was bad, was to walk in the guard-room under the protection of heavy coats of fur. By a stroke of ingenuity, ice was turned into a means of protection against the piercing cold. The interior walls of the house were covered with water, which froze into solid ice. This lining was found to hold firm until the general thaw of spring came. In the intensity of frost, rocks, into the crevices of which water has run, split with a report resembling that of a gun. Everywhere they are punctured and riven from the effects of freezing water.

The return of spring and summer, after a long, gloomy winter, in this region, is like an awakening to a new life. The welcome change is thoroughly enjoyed. Summer treads so closely upon the heels of winter as scarcely to leave any standing ground for spring. One of the great drawbacks to the enjoyment of the summer consists in the myriads of mosquitoes that fill the air, and give the weary dwellers no rest day or night. They crowd in such numbers at Churchill Factory as to appear to crush one another to death, and the victims are sometimes in such piles that they have to be swept out twice every day. Nothing but a northeast wind, carrying the chill from the ice over which it has passed, gives relief from these tormentors. As a cure for mosquito bites, the natives anoint themselves with sturgeon oil an effective remedy, but one requiring to be often applied. Nor is man alone the only victim of these insects. They prey equally upon animals of various kinds; even the feathered tribe, so far from being safe, suffer about the neck and eyes. No permanent relief can be expected until the chilly nights of September set in. In this month the sandflies and midges are innumerable, the latter insinuating themselves all over the body, the clothes affording no adequate protection. These insect plagues cease their torments at sunset, and they disappear entirely in October. However the fact may be accounted for, all these pests become more numerous the farther one goes north. In the swamps, where they are most numerous, they make the dogs howl, roll on the ground and rush into the water. The fox shows his restlessness by barking and snapping about, and when inclination suggests his going after birds' nests, he is compelled to seek shelter in his burrow. If the chief business of the company's servants in winter is to struggle for existence against the cold, in the summer an equally fierce contest takes place against mosquitoes, sandflies and the overpowering heat.

Widely different from the great depot forts, however, are the trading posts of the company quaint-looking places constructed according to a uniform type. Built generally upon the second or lower bank of a river or lake, though sometimes perched upon the loftier outer banks, a trading fort is invariably a square or oblong, enclosed by immense trees or pickets, one end sunk deeply in the ground, and placed close together. In the prairie country, this defence is stout and lofty, but in the wooded region, it is frequently dispensed with altogether. A platform, about the ordinary height of a. man, is carried along inside the square, to enable anyone to peep over without being in danger from an arrow or bullet. The entrance is closed by two massive gates, an inner and an outer one, and all the houses of the chief trader and his men, the trading store, fur room and warehouses are within the square the former always standing in the middle, the latter ranged about the walls, facing inward. At the four corners of the palisade are bastions, generally two stories high, pierced with embrasures, to delude the Indians into the belief that cannons are there, and intended to strike terror into any red-skinned rebel daring to dispute the supremacy of the company.

The trade room, or, as it is more frequently called, the Indian shop, at an interior trading post, bears a close resemblance to the store of civilization. It contains every imaginable commodity likely to be required by the Indians. Upon its shelves are piled bales of cloth of all colours, capotes, blankets, etc.; in smaller divisions are placed balls of twine, scalping knives, gun flints, fire steels, files, gun screws, canoe awls, and glass beads of all colours, sizes and descriptions. Drawers under the counter contain fish hooks, needles, scissors, thimbles, red and yellow ochre and vermilion for painting faces and canoes. Upon the floor is strewn an assortment of tin and copper kettles, ranging in capacity from a pint to half a gallon. In the corners of the room stand trading guns, kegs of powder and boxes of balls, while from the ceiling depending on other articles of trade.

In many of the forts the trade room is cleverly contrived to prevent a sudden rush of Indians, the approach from outside the pickets being through a long, narrow passage only of sufficient width to admit a single Indian at a time, and bent at an acute angle at the window where the trader stands. This precaution is rendered necessary by the frantic desire which sometimes seizes the Indian to shoot the trader.

Time moves slowly at many of these isolated trading posts and change is almost unknown. Today they are the same as they were one hundred years ago. The requisition for the goods of this year contains precisely the same articles as that of a century since. The Indian trapper still brings his marten and musquash, and his wants are still strouds, cotton, beads, and trading guns. The sundial, placed in the open courtyard three generations ago, has changed no more than the great luminary whose course it marks. Only outside the walls, where a rude cross or wooden railing, blown over by the tempest, discoloured by rain and snowdrift, marks the lonely resting place of the dead, does the role of the passing years leave its trace.

Until a comparatively recent date, the system of trading at all the company's posts was entirely one of barter, money values being unknown. Latterly, however, the all-potent dollar is becoming a recognized medium of exchange, especially at the forts nearest the borders of civilization; but the standard of values throughout all the territories of the company is still the beaver-skin, by which the prices of all other furs are governed. Every service rendered, or purchase made, is paid for in skins, the beaver being the unit of computation.

The collection of fur skins throughout the company's territory is made during the autumn and winter months at the different trading posts; the summer season is occupied with transporting goods to the various districts, the concentration of furs at the depots, and the collection of a sufficient supply of provisions to last over winter. The latter consists in the plain districts of pemmican dried buffalo meat mingled with fat and flour; in the wood districts of fish and dried moose and reindeer meat. A winter very rarely passes at the more isolated forts, however, without the little garrison being reduced to a very short allowance, often being obliged to kill their horses to maintain life.

The life of the company's servants is a hard one in many respects, yet it seems admirably suited to the daring men, who have shown a patient endurance of every hardship and privation in the fur trade. Indeed, no other branch of commerce has tended more to bring out man's energy and courage. The pursuit of fur may be traced to the sources from which the knowledge of three-fourths of the continent of North America has been derived.