The number of persons in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America, on the 1st of June, 1844, was 1212. In 1837 the Company's service consisted of 25 chief factors, 27 chief traders, 152 clerks, and about 1200 regular servants, besides boatmen and hunters occasionally employed. ' Many young men of superior education and of respectable family are in the service of the Company. " If they conduct themselves well as clerks, they are pro moted and become traders, and after wards factors. The chief factors and chief traders, as they are called, partici pate in the profits." (Evidence of Sir J. H. Pelly, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.) The administration of the Company has been highly beneficial tc the people within its territories. " In all the countries," says Mr. Wyeth, " where the Hudson's Bay Company have exchk sive control, they are at peace with t Indians. and the Indians are at pea amongst themselves." (Territory Oregon Report.) All the furs collected by the Hudson Bay Company are shipped to Londoi some from their factories at York and on Moose River, in Hudson's Ba: other portions from Montreal, and t remainder from the Columbia Rivt The furs taken in the whole of the Oz gon territory are shipped from the C lumbia. In 1844 the Company import from the whole of their North Americ territories and hunting-grounds 433,3 skins, of the value of 173,936/. ; of whi Oregon furnished 61,365 skins, valued 43,5711. In 1845 their importations fro Oregon have been 57,628 skins, valued 56,749/. (Edinburgh Review, No. 16: ' The fur sales of the Hudson's B: Company are held every year in ti month of March, and being of gre magnitude, they attract many foreii merchants to London. The purchas of these foreigners are chiefly sent to t.1 great fair in Leipzig, whence the furs a distributed to all parts of the confine of Europe.
The fur trade is prosecuted in ti north-western territones of the Unit States by an association called the.Nor American Fur Company, the princip managers of which reside at New Yor The chief station of this company Michilimackinac, to which are broug all the peltries collected at the other pot of the Mississippi, Missouri, and stone rivers, and through the great rani of country extending thence to the Rod Mountains. This Company emplo steam-boats for ascending the rives which penetrate with ease to which could formerly be explored on through the most painful exertions keel-boats and barges, or by small parti on horseback or on foot.
The ermine, called by way of pr eminence "the precious ermine," is four almost exclusively in the cold regions Europe and Asia. The stoat (which fact is identical with the ermine), but t] fur of which is greatly inferior to that the European and Asiatic animal, is four in North America. The fur of the ermii is of a pure whiteness throughout, with the exception of the tip of the tail, which is black ; and the spotted appearance of ermine skins, by which they are pecu liarly known, is produced by fastening these black tips at intervals on the skins. The animal is from 14 to 16 inches long from the nose to the tip of the tail, the body being from 10 to 12 inches long. The best fur is yielded by the oldest animals. They are taken by snares and in traps, and are sometimes shot, while running, with blunt arrows. The sable
is a native of Northern Europe and Siberia. The skins of best quality are procured by the Samoieds, and in Yakutsk, Kamtchatka, and Russian Lapland : those of the darkest colour are the most es teemed. The length of the sable is from 18 to 20 inches. It has been considered by some naturalists a variety of the pine marten. Martens are found in North America as well as in Northern Asia and the mountains of Kamtchatka : the Ameri can skins are generally the least valued, but many among them are rich and of a beautiful dark-brown olive colour. The fiery fox, so called from its brilliant red colour, is taken near the north-eastern coast of Asia, and its fur is much valued, both for its colour and fineness, in that quarter of the world. Nutria skins are obtained from South America, and the greater part of the importations in this country come from the states of the Rio de la Plata. These skins are of recent introduction, having first become an ar ticle of commerce in 1810: the fur is chiefly used by hat-manufacturers, as a substitute for beaver. Sea-otter skins were first sought for their fur in the early part of the eighteenth century, when they were brought to Western Europe from the Aleutian and Kurile Islands, where, as well as in Behring's Island, Kamtchatka, and the neighbouring Ame rican shores, sea-otters are found in great numbers. The fur of the young animal is of a beautiful brown colour, but when older the colour becomes jet-black. The fur is extremely fine, soft, and close, and bears a silky gloss. Towards the close of the eighteenth century furs had become exceedingly scarce in Siberia, and it be came necessary to look to fresh sources for the supply of China and other Asiatic countries. It was about the year 1780 that sea-otter skins were first carried to China, where they realised such high prices as greatly to stimulate the search for them. With this view several expedi tions were made from the United States and from England to the northern islands of the Pacific and to Nootka Sound, as well as to the north-west coast of Ame rica. The Russians then held and still hold the tract of country most favourable for this purpose, but the trading ships which frequent the coast are enabled to procure these skins from the Indians. Fur-seals are found in great numbers in the colder latitudes of the southern hemi sphere. South Georgia, in 55° S. lat., logs explored by Captain Cook in 1771, and immediately thereafter was resorted to by the colonists of British America, who conveyed great numbers of seal skins thence to China, where very high prices were obtained. The South Shetland Is lands, in 63° S. lat., were greatly resorted to by seals, and soon after the discovery of these islands in 1818, great numbers were taken : in 1821 and 1822 the num ber of seal skins taken on these islands alone amounted to 820,000. Owing to the system of extermination pursued by the hunters, these animals are now almost extinct in all these islands, and the trade for a time at least has ceased. The seal fishery, or hunting, in the Lobos Islands, is placed under restrictive regulations by the government of Montevideo, and by this means the supply of animals upon them is kept pretty regular.