Fur trade

“ Being thus few in kind, and limited in quantity, one might fear the extinction of the several choice varieties through the persistent energy of the trapper. But here the fickleness of fashion steps in, and does for the fur trade what the law of supply and demand does for the more staple articles of commerce. Fashion, fastidious and fickle, neglects the use of certain kinds for a season; the market price of the pelt no longer repays the outfit of the trapper ”

“ Remembering this synthetic nature of these features of our history, we shall endeavour, with as little repetition as possible, to present a coherent picture of that great era of the fur-traders.
Without doubt one of the earliest uses to which man has put the lower animals is that of clothing his body in their captured skins. The acquisition of furs has been a special feature of the colder climes. It is obviously also a feature of discovery and conquest, for it is the wilderness only which yields any considerable number of fur-producing animals. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the part of the United States, the fur trade is chiefly prosecuted by the North American Fur Company, whose principal establishment is at Michillimakinac, where it receives324 skins from the posts depending on that station and from those on the Mississippi, Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and the great range of country extending thence to the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ Like every other business, the fur trade runs in its regular grooves, and the average furrier will often pay an experienced professional five dollars for a skin for which he would not offer a dollar to an amateur. ”

“ The leading spirits of the fur-trade then being prosecuted in the northern wilds, were well aware that they derived their profits from but an infinitesimal portion of the fur-trading territory; the advantages of extension and development were perfectly apparent to them; but the difficulties involved in dealing with the savage tribes, and the dangers attending the establishment of further connections with the remote interior, conspired to make them content with the results attained by the methods then in vogue. ”

“ A distinction which is made by fur dressers and dyers, and also by the fur trade in general, divides furs into those derived from domestic animals, particularly the various kinds of sheep, including also the goat species, and those obtained from other animals by trapping. ”

“ After that the fur trade formed the pattern of exploration, trade and settlement. It sustained the colonies along the Atlantic seaboard until they could be rooted in agriculture and it was a controlling factor in the westward movement of our population.
In the seventeenth century there was a seemingly insatiable demand in Europe for beaver pelts, inflated in no small degree by early laws prohibiting the use of cheaper furs in hat making. Since there was an apparently inexhaustible supply of these pelts in America, the fur trade quickly became the economic lifeblood of the colonies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Summing together the total amount of the Russian fur-trade, Von Baer estimates the value of the skins annually brought to the market by the Russian American Fur Company at half a million of silver roubles, the produce of European Russia at a million and a half, and that of Siberia at three millions. As agriculture decreases on advancing to the north, the chase of the fur-bearing animals increases in importance. Thus, in the most northern governments of European Russia—Wjatka, Wologda, Olonez, and Archangel—it is one of the chief occupations of the inhabitants. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The fur trade is the great object of attraction to settlers in this wilderness; and so lucrative is this traffic, that it is well calculated to excite a competition amongst rival states. It can only be prosecuted by such nations as have a ready access to these deserts, where the wild animals which afford this valuable article of trade multiply undisturbed by civilized man. ”

“ Louis is now the headquarters of the fur trade of the United States; and it will strike the reader with surprise to learn that there are over five hundred thousand people in the United States who now, today, make their living trapping and dressing the furs and skins of wild animals. ”

“ Small companies of white hunters and fur traders sometimes visited our camp, taking our furs, and giving us powder, ball and trinkets in return. The trade in furs became more and more an object to the tribe, and, finally, it was a part of their system to despatch some of the men every winter to the mountainous country at the west, for the purpose of killing foxes, wild-cats, and other animals, in order to obtain their skins. ”

“ Fur-Bearing Animals.—Of the animals of North America which are taken for their fur, the seal and sea-otter have already been referred to in connection with the brief review presented of the life of the continental shelf. As is well known, the colder regions of the earth are the ones which yield the most valuable furs, and in the fur trade of the world this continent, on account of its wide expansion at the north, has taken the leading place as a producer. ”

“ As all the men who were prominent in this activity could not be named, only meaningful case histories that point up the pattern of the early fur trade have been cited. Fortunately, there are local histories, county and state, that do name most of these truly pioneer Americans and credit them with their individual accomplishments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ During past ages many of the wild creatures of the forest and stream were hunted and captured in various ways by the inhabitants of the wilderness,--the flesh of these animals being the principal food of many tribes of savages and the skins being used for clothing; but it was only after furs became a staple article of wearing apparel among civilized nations and the traders had learned of the profits to be made in the fur trade that wholesale and systematic trapping began. ”

“ The skin of the silver fox—so called from a slight sprinkling of pure white hairs covering its otherwise jet-black body—is the most valuable fur obtained by the fur-traders, and fetches an enormous price in the British market, so much as thirty pounds sterling being frequently obtained for a single skin. The foxes vary in colour from jet black, which is the most valuable, to a light silvery hue, and are hailed as great prizes by the Indians and trappers when they are so fortunate as to catch them. ”

“ Their deeds are known even so far as where the Great Salt Lake beats on the shore where the sun rises. They are not women, and when their enemies hear the sound of their name they grow pale; their hearts become like those of the reindeer. My brethren are famous, too, in the use of the snow-shoe, the snare, and the gun. The fur-traders know that they must build large stores when they come into their lands. They bring up much goods, because the young men are active and require much. The silver fox and the marten are no longer safe when their traps and snares are set. ”

“ When a hunter brings in his bales of fur, he takes them to the warehouse, where they are assorted and appraised by the chief trader, after much haggling. When the value is determined, the trader pushes over the counter as many “beaver” (lead pellets) , as the furs are worth. The hunter takes these to the store, and, after much travail and advice, exchanges them for winter supplies and gewgaws that strike his fancy. In this primitive way is wrought the gigantic trade that covers woman with fur, from queens with their ermine to the shop-girl with her scraggly muskrat or rabbit. ”

“ CHAPTER V. TRADING-POSTS AND THEIR STORIES. As early as the first decade of the present century, the great fur companies sent out expeditions up the valley of the Platte in the charge of their agents, to trap the beaver and other animals valuable for their beautiful skins. The hardships of these pioneers in the beginning of a trade which in a short time assumed gigantic proportions are a story of suffering and privation which has few parallels in the history of the development of our mid-continent region. ”

“ The trade is at present pursued by the export of furs, gunpowder, shot, woollens, hardware and other articles, which together with large supplies of provisions for the factories, constitute an annual outfit consisting wholly of British manufactures and British produce of from £40,000 to £50,000, in return for which we receive the furs of bears, wolves, foxes, otters, martens, beaver and other animals, together with some oil and articles of inferior value. ”

“ At a later period, when people had advanced to the point where they lived in cities, the preparing or dressing of skins became centered in the hands of a comparatively small number of people, and thus the work took on the aspects of a trade. The workers in fur were at first the same people who made leather out of the skin, for the two kinds of work were very closely associated. ”

“ The French influence upon the trade has been, and still is, primarily one of style and combination of colour, bad judgment in which will mar the beauty of the most valuable furs. It is a recognized law among high-class furriers that furs should be simply arranged, that is, that an article should consist of one fur or of two furs of a suitable contrast, to which lace may be in some cases added with advantage. ”

“ The common hare of Europe does not much interest the furrier, the fur being chiefly used by makers of hatters’ felt. The white hares, however, of Russia, Siberia and other regions in the Arctic circle are very largely used in the cheaper trade of Europe, America and the British colonies. The fur is of the whitest when killed in winter, and that upon the flanks of the animal is very much longer than that upon its back. The flanks are usually cut off and made into muffs and stoles. ”

“ Stretchers for most fur that we case should not taper more than 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch from shoulder to hind legs.
We make mistakes in setting our traps too early, for one prime skin is worth more than three early caught ones. We make mistakes in not having one, and only one, responsible and honorable party in each large city to ship our furs to; by giving one party a large trade should give the trapper the full market price for his furs. ”

“ The poorest skins are not more valuable than those of the beaver; but the fine choice specimens command from £20 to £100. They are in high repute with the Russians and Chinese.
Rabbit.—Size, 10 by 16 inches; fur thick and fine; pelt weak; colour all shades from black to white. Best are found in England, but the purest white come from Poland. The best coloured skins are used by furriers, but much the larger portion is cut for hatters' fur. The animal is largely bred in warrens, and its flesh used as food; the pelts thus become of secondary importance, and, being abundant, supply a cheap fur. ”