the Rocky mountains. Its agents procure nearly all their furs themselves, by trapping; and trade but little with the Indians. Three or four hundred hunters and trappers remain in that country, who repair during each summer to the places of rendezvous, carrying their furs on their backs, or on pack-horses, where they meet the caravans from the United States. The principal places of rendezvous for the American traders are on Green river, a branch of the Colorado, at the foot of the Rocky mountains, and at Pierre's Hole. A portion of the American fur traders are also stationed round the great lakes, at the posts formerly occupied by the old French and English companies; and a large quantity of fish is taken by them annually in the waters of Lake Superior, which are shipped, together with the furs collected, to New York. The quantity of furs collected annually by the American Fur Company, we are not able to state; but it must be great, from the quantity exported, exclusive of the home consumption. The success of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which had advanced into the west, soon excited the emulation of the American Fur Company; Mr. Astor, its founder, having retired in consequence of his age, the concerns of the company were left under the direction of Mr. Ramsay Crooks. A competition soon sprang up between the two companies, for the trade with the mountain tribes, upon the head waters of the Columbia, and other tributaries of the Pacific. The character of the men engaged as hunters and trappers in the fur trade throughout the extreme north-west, is peculiar. The trade is not carried on now, as in former times, by batteaux and canoes, under the old French and English system. The fur animals have disappeared before the advance of settlers along the shores of the lakes and rivers; and the great bulk of the fur trade has been transferred to the mountain regions. The traders transport their goods, or furs, upon pack-horses, or carry them on their own backs. They move from place to place on horseback, sometimes conveying their traps upon their shoulders through deep ravines, or up steep precipices. The life of the trapper is therefore a course of toil, deprivation, and excitement. Fort Vancouver, belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, is situated on the Columbia, about 100 miles from its mouth. It is comprised in a group of buildings enclosed by pickets, which includes a space of about 450 feet. Here there are thirty-four houses, and also workshops for mechanics, and a fort. Near the fort are cabins for labourers, and the connecting buildings, a saw-mill, magazine hospital, and a large boat-house near the shore. At this point is also a farm containing 3000 acres of land, cultivated by Canadians and half-breed Iroquois. Four ships ply from the coast, bringing supplies, and returning with furs to London. A steamboat called the Beaver, of 150 tons, and with two engines of thirty horse power, built in London, is employed in navigating the straits from Juan de Fuca to Stickern. The fur trade has long extended adventure, employment, and excitement to vast numbers; but it appears fated to decline, with the destruction of wild animals, east as well as west of the Rocky mountains. The indiscriminate destruction of those animals, has been obviated in some measure by the Hudson's Bay Company, who have preserved particular tracts. The Russians and the Hudson's Bay Company exclude American vessels from the north-west Pacific coast. The American fur trade, which now ranges west of Lake Superior and the Missouri, towards the Rocky mountains, has changed its principal depôt from Detroit to St. Louis. A writer in the New York Merchants' Magazine observes: "An interesting feature of the commerce of St. Louis, is the circumstance that the trade of the American Fur Company, and that of other independent traders, including the fur trade of nearly all the northern and north-western Indians within the jurisdiction of the United States, concentrates at that point. The value, to that city, of the trade in cloths, blankets, and other fabrics used in the traffic, exclusive of annuities, the pay of hands, and the outfits for expeditions, boats, &c., has been estimated, by individuals familiar with the trade, as exceeding 225,000 dollars. It has been computed that the exportation of furs, buffalo-robes, and peltries, the proceeds of that trade, which go to the Atlantic cities, independently of the home consumption, and the amount sent to the Ohio and other parts of the west, during the year 1841, was between 350,000 dollars and 400,000 dollars; and that the entire fur trade for that year could not fall short of 500,000 dollars. This trade includes the furs and skins that were collected by the various Indian tribes from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and from the Columbia to the California. The American Fur Company, it is well known, was originally incorporated with a capital of 1,000,000 dollars; and into this, as well as the Messrs. Brent's company upon the Arkansas, have been merged several smaller companies. They employ a number of steam and other boats, and several thousands of men. These boats, at least once a year, ascend the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone, freighted exclusively with supplies for trade in furs with the several Indian tribes between the state line and that river, and also with the tribes extending thence to the Rocky mountains and the Pacific. The furs and peltries thus collected through that extensive tract of territory, as well as those purchased by the Mexicans, traverse a considerable portion of the Mississippi and the interior rivers; but the trade has, as is well known, become diverted to other channels, and has suffered substantial drawbacks in consequence of a want of certainty in the plans upon which it has been prosecuted." The trade in the skins of wild animals being carried on in every market in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and as those animals, whose furs are considered the most valuable, as objects more of luxury than of necessity, are in all countries decreasing in numbers, the fashion, or taste, for furs must either diminish in proportion, or the price must advance in the same ratio, as the furs most sought for become rarer. The following tables are compressed from official returns :— SKINS of the Hudson's Bay Company exposed for Sale in London. 82,927 156,168 15,934 2147 22,861 9,000 1,500 210 300 838,549 7563 .. 6115 31,887 27,750 7031 2166 754 6600 585 The company also imported beaver-coat to the amount, in the last year, of 304 lbs. ; castoreum, 2788 lbs.; isinglass, 2684 lbs.; seahorse teeth, 461 lbs.; bed-feathers, 16,641 lbs.; goose and swan quills, 1,259,000; oil, 26 tuns. * Ships not arrived this year. STATEMENT of the Quantities of the different Kinds of Furs Imported into, Exported from, and retained for Home Consumption in the United Kingdom, &c. BEAR. Quantities Imported into the United Kingdom. COUNTRIES. 1833 1831 1832 No. No. No. No. No. No. Mink. Wolf. Wolverine. Badger. ZZ Swan. Racoon. British North American Colonies... United States of America.. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 Other countries 93,199 80,125 34,275 104,429 85,933 50,775 93,061 66,820 57,827 55,430 52,240 44,810 40,480 6,434 19,298 14,412 10,876 12,180 15,250 Total...... 100,944 91,970 42,649 117,206 88,400 57,375 112,479 81,409 68,750 67,622 67,780 57,710 49,688 Entered for home con sumption... 65,699 100,581 92,098 59,673 97,542 87,473 74,514 101,721 75,108 68,567 71,469 61,233 52,048 12 Total...... 243,705 239,241 No. No. No. 181,466 224,216 47,575 121,280 60,053 81,975 101,451 93,962 101,788 64,925 174,308 6,480 No. No. No. 77,683 83,647 80,550 3,800 14,517 13,332 488 2,995 292 80 43 4 4,888 2,480 2 Entered for home con sumption.. 238,127 244,340 182,771 204,115 50,390 122,741 68,945 63,733 111,726 57,869 106,849 75,042 173,445 of America.. 50,083 37,919 40,777 32,604 47,253 25,934 33,781 20,455 26,721 20,107 40,998 16,808 25,144 Other countries 235 1,975 29 7,109 826 Total..... .... 211,988 140,457 163,277 182,426 159,954 196,475 290,659 211,751 228,167 160,947217,259 154,006 208,881 34,628 28,280 70,404 69,551 80,822 105,085 6,323 4,893 6 10,488 1,467 1,646 27,603 20,757 4,436 57,530 76,816 62,627 76,182 1,726 7,054 1,338 1,842 1,352 1,437 13,826 20,024 21,681 379 815 3,773 21,544 74,046 61,919 67,375 69,972 84,804 COUNTRIES. Quantities Re-exported from the United Kingdom. 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 Total...... 7,269 26,187 14,875 2,984 17,961 17,659 10,084 40,430 27,699 32,814 14,334 13,632 15,728 Entered for home con sumption.. 145,859' 178,425 178,708 130,205 134,370 197,804 183,152 224,609 217,231 164,393 196,677 165,731 182,515 Total...... 772,693 507,298 118,889 872,555 1,171,659 380,201 1,195,265 504,016 813,101 357,114 339,939 860,659 865,337 Re-exported 602,662 114,421 110,859 87,979 221,490 204,749 270.742 149,416 111,706 64,977 54,840 82,760 198,125 Entered forcon sumption.... 274,214 323,348 512,420 246,089 570,114 784 379 162,083 690,060 598,170 466,322 511,116 601,934 1,045,713 39 30 de la Plata... 429,966 163,071 28,859 46,297 557,300 1,958,891 518,175 1,195,982 Other countries 2,273 36 16 685 965 Total...... 494,067 222,493 23,889 61,603 557,600 1,970,375 523,446 1,210,924 214,882 242,773 1,125,212| 822,415 Entered for con sumption..... 426,012 275,727 23,889 51,216 451,867 1,328,017|820,414|1,405,972 220,719 259,688 901,707 600,425 560,646 455 558 196,811 1,119,565 820,374 818,432 245 836,725 |