Pacific Fur Company

“ The vanity and luxury of men and women in Europe and in China developed and made to prosper the fur-trade in North America, but the indirect results are the present developments of the Western United States and of Western and Northwestern Canada.
Capt. Robert Gray, looking for furs, when he discovered the Columbia River, May 11, 1792, and also John Jacob Astor, when he organized the Pacific Fur Company in 1810, and founded Astoria, April 12, 1811, had no thoughts of what the great indirect results would be. ”

“ Congress would not let Canadians trade in furs within the American frontier; and the Company was dissolved.
Astor had been putting together some separate facts about furs; and out of his meditations grew one of the grandest schemes that ever occurred to a private citizen. A sea otter which had a very fine fur had been found to abound all along the coast of the Pacific. This was one fact. Another was that the Chinese were the best customers for furs in the world, and that they especially prized the skins of this sea otter. ”

“ It is probable a day is at hand when all this area will be dotted with farms, villages and cities, a time when its forests will be uprooted and the plains of Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory tilled by the husbandman, its hills and valleys exploited by the miner; yet, certain spots in this vast region must ever bear testimony to the hunter of furs. Remote, solitary, often hungry and not seldom frozen—the indomitable servant of the Great Fur Company lived here his life and gave his name to mountain, lake and river. ”

“ With Fort Smith as a centre, there remains an unmarred fur-preserve and a race of hardy trappers. Is the fur-trade diminishing? Statistics are extremely difficult to get, dealers do not publish dividend-sheets, the stockholders of the Mother-Lodge of the H.B. Company do not advertise. There is no import duty on raw skins into the United States, and so no means of keeping tally on the large shipments of fur which yearly find their way south from Canada. ”

“ During recent years, the supply has fallen off materially in face of the fact of improved trapping methods and a greatly increased number of persons seeking the fur bearers. The same conditions are true to a greater or less degree in many parts of the country.
The American people, however, can be depended upon to meet all emergencies. They have already set about to provide for the future raw fur supply by raising the animals. As early as 1884, experiments were made at raising foxes on the islands in the Northern Pacific Ocean, along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska. ”

“ The Alaska Commercial Company, now about ten years old, enjoys some special privilege for the taking of seal skins on the Pribiloff Islands, and some peculiar restrictions exist in Russia in relation to certain peltries, but beyond this, the trade in furs is a free one the world over. Individual enterprise, skill, forecast, and capital, have an open field. ”

“ When the journey is undertaken in the winter, which is very seldom the case, it is performed on snow-shoes, and no canoes are taken. Fur animals are scarce, yet some few Beavers and Otters are caught, a few Martens and Sables, and some Foxes and Lynx, but every year diminishes their numbers. The Fur Company may be called the exterminating 379 medium of these wild and almost uninhabitable climes, where cupidity and the love of gold can alone induce man to reside for a while. ”

“ We do not, at present, possess any accurate and detailed account of these people, for the American Fur Company, who trade with them, and therefore have had the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with them, seldom take any interest in scientific researches. ”

“ The rendezvous of this year was at Bonneville's old fort on Green River, and was the last one held in the mountains by the American Fur Company. Beaver was growing scarce, and competition was strong. On the disbanding of the company, some went to Santa Fe, some to California, others to the Lower Columbia, and a few remained in the mountains trapping, and selling their furs to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall. ”

“ Canada sent out only 17,000 or 20,000 skins a year. So rapidly did musk-rat grow in favour as a lining and imitation fur that in 1888 it was no unusual thing for 200,000 musk-rat-skins to be brought to a single Hudson's Bay Company fort. In Canada the climate compels the use of heavier furs than in the United States, so that the all-fur coat is in greater demand than the fur-lined; but in Canada, not less than 2,000,000 musk-rat furs are taken every year. In the United States the total is close on 4,000,000. In one city alone, St. Paul, 50,000 musk-rat-skins are cured every year. ”

“ It is an average computation of the furs obtained every year, and the value of each to the American Fur Company. The Hudson Bay Company are supposed to average about the same quantity, or rather more; and they have a larger proportion of valuable furs, such as beaver and sable, but they have few deer and no buffalo. When we consider how sterile and unfit for cultivation are these wild northern regions, it certainly appears better that they should remain as they are:—
besides skunks, ground-hogs, hares, and many others. ”

“ Instead of following up the Saskatchewan, they strike from Lake Winnipeg northward for Churchill River and Athabasca, and they bring out furs that transform those peddlers into merchant princes. A little later the chief buyer of the Montreal furs is one John Jacob Astor of New York. Then another change. Rivalry hurts fur trade. Especially do different prices demoralize the Indians. The Montreal merchants pool their capital and become known as the Northwest Fur Company. They now hire their voyageurs outright on a salary. No man is paid less than what would be $500 in modern money, with board ”

“ The natives, and even the outlawed coureurs des bois, found ready, local markets for their peltries in exchange for trade goods and supplies. And, while deep-laden canoes and company boats plied the alluvial waters of the Mississippi River to and from its mouth, ships from France set a course direct to the Gulf of Mexico—to the new French fur emporium in America.
In the meantime, the main path of the fur traders, the line of communication between Canada and Louisiana, was shortened by a far-sighted Gascon merchant named Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. ”

“ At this meeting Major Joshua Pilcher, as agent for the American Fur Company, formally and legally took over the interests of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Fontenelle, thus consolidating the monopoly. The missionaries, accompanied by Hudson’s Bay Company agents, followed the Bear River route westward. The fur trappers were left in the mountains with Drips, Fontenelle, and Bridger. Says Osborne Russell:
Mr. ”

“ With the present high and continually appreciating price of skins, none of the common people of the land, white or native, can afford to wear furs. Such a prohibition as has been suggested would restore to Alaskans a small share in the resources of Alaska. Is there any country in the world where furs are actually needed more?
Not only beaver, but nearly all fur and game animals have greatly increased in the Kantishna country. In the year of the stampede, when thousands of men spent the winter here, there was wholesale destruction of game and trapping of fur. ”

“ The otter has almost entirely disappeared, and is only to be found near the islands of the North Pacific. Small colonies of beavers have taken refuge on the shores of the most distant rivers. It is the same with many other animals, compelled to flee before the invasion of the hunters. The traps, once crowded with game, are now empty. The price of skins is rising just when a great demand exists for furs. Hunters have gone away in disgust, leaving none but the most intrepid and indefatigable, who now penetrate to the very confines of the American continent. ”

“ Bison-furs are now the medium of trade. When an Indian presents himself at the fort, the agents of the Company give him as many pieces of wood as he brings skins, and he exchanges these pieces of wood for manufactured articles on the premises; and as the Company fix the price of the articles they buy and sell, they cannot fail to realise large profits. ”

“ I shall not, in this address, go into the matter of John Jacob Astor and his various enterprises prior to the time he thought of engaging in the fur-trade on the Northwest Pacific Coast. At that time he had a great knowledge of the fur-trade and had become, what was then considered, a very wealthy man. ”

“ But of all these fur marts that of London is the chief, for thither tend by the laws of trade, not only much of the produce of Asia and Europe, but also the fine peltries of Chili and Peru, the nutria from Buenos Ayres, the fur seal of Cape Horn and South Shetland, the hair seal from Newfoundland, as well as the inferior peltries of Africa. To prepare fur skins in a way to endure this long transportation is a simple and easy matter. When stripped from the animal the flesh and fat are carefully removed, and the pelts hung in a cool place to dry and harden; nothing is added to protect them. ”

“ Frequently the other fur companies, (for there were other companies formed on the heels of Ashley's enterprise,) learning of the place appointed for the yearly rendezvous, brought their goods to the same resort, when an intense rivalry was exhibited by the several traders as to which company should soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the largest amount of furs from the trappers and Indians. ”

“ The great king of all the American fur trade was John Jacob Astor of New York city. When the reports of Lewis and Clark's successful trip came to Astor, he immediately determined to establish a great fur depot on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Columbia River, and to dispatch two expeditions to that point, one to go by sea around South America, the other to go overland. ”

“ Some of the poorer sorts of furs, such as hamster, marmot, Chinese goats and lambs, Tatar ponies, weasels, kaluga, various monkeys, antelopes, foxes, otters, jackals and others from the warmer zones, which until recently were neglected on account of their inferior quality of colour, by the better class of the trade, are now being deftly dressed or dyed in Europe and America, and good effects are produced, although the lack of quality when compared with the better furs from colder climates which possess full top hair, close underwool and supple leathers, is readily manifest. ”

“ The skunk, mink and muskrat do well in settled sections. There is always a cash market for raw furs and since the discovery of America, raw furs have been an important article of commerce. An industry paying the hunter and trapper probably $15,000,000 yearly is one that should receive attention. The demand for furs is increasing as the population of the world is becoming more and more. ”

“ As it is natural to prefer articles that are rare and far-fetched, and as furs can be easily carried to any part of the world, most prefer foreign to domestic furs of the same quality. Thus we export much of our fox, marten, fisher, otter, beaver, and muskrat fur, while we import Astrakhan, Russian sable, ermine, Siberian squirrel, French rabbit, or cony, chinchilla, and nutria fur. ”

“ The dyer and his art have greatly changed the fur trade. It is he who enables the salesgirl to wear furs that look like those of her customers. For example, here is a coat made of the best beaver. Its price is four hundred dollars, and beside it is another made of dyed rabbit fur, marked one hundred and fifty dollars. It is hard for a novice to tell which is the better. All sorts of new names have been devised by the furriers to popularize dyed skins of humble animals, from house cats to skunks, in order to increase the supply of good-looking and durable furs. ”

“ Besides this, the Company have reliable information that many have exchanged their poor Furs for the Company’s best Furs, or certainly bought up the best for themselves and not for the Company, all to the great and excessive damage and loss to the Company ”

“ In this same year the Company, at the suggestion of Chief Factor McLaughlin, demanded and obtained of the Russian Fur Company a ten years' lease for trading purposes of a strip of land ten leagues wide, extending north from latitude 50° 40', and lying between British territory and the ocean, paying therefor two thousand east side land otter, worth thirty-two shillings and sixpence each. ”

“ Since the United States took over the country in 1867 about ninety thousand have been marketed. Now, however, the output is only about twenty skins a year. A good otter skin is [135] very valuable, ranging in price from eight hundred to eighteen hundred dollars.
The seal-fur industry, although developed by the Russians, reached its height after the territory was acquired by the United States. From 1867 to 1902 seal skins to the value of thirty-five million dollars were exported. The fur seal, although widely distributed throughout the country, has but one breeding place,—the Pribilof Islands. ”

“ Until recently, many dealers and manufacturers believed that the supply of wild fur-bearing animals was practically inexhaustible—that when wanted, trappers would go out into the "wilds," catch, skin and send the pelts to market. These people are beginning to awaken to the true situation and while they send out price lists, circulars, and traveling buyers after raw furs, they say it is much harder to secure the goods wanted than formerly. ”