Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/217

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De Mofras Exploration of Oregon
163

mated at more than five million francs, or two hundred thousand pounds sterling, in an ordinary year.[1]

To give an idea of this immense commerce, we will limit ourselves to giving from the official abstract the quantity of principal goods sold at public auction December 20, and January 17, last:

Muskrat
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
528,000
Beaver
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
22,000
Brown and black bear
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
4,000
Fox—silver, red, black, and white
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
7,000
Wolf and wolverine
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
10,000
Lynx
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
7,000
Ermine
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
18,000
Marten
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
60,000
Badger
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,000
Otter
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
5,000
Humps and tongues of bison and deer.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
6,000
Whale oil, casks
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
50
Castoreum, kilograms
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
700
Fish glue, kilograms
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
3,000
Down, kilograms
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
600
Seal tusks
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,000

It is unnecessary to mention other less important articles. In this enumeration beaver and otter skins constitute a very considerable value.


IMPORTS

The articles imported from England by the Company, generally of inferior quality, consist principally of coarse cloths, wearing apparel, ordinary fabrics of various kinds, calico, crockery, glassware, household utensils, common cutlery, copper ornaments for the Indians, carpenters' and joiners' tools. Let us add that if the Company was wrong in selling firearms and powder to the

Indians, it has, at least up to the present, avoided spreading among them the use of spiritous liquors.


  1. See MacCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce; and Silliman's Journal: On the fur trade.—V. 25, p. 34.

    Importations by the Hudson's Bay Company, London, 1843, 1844. —de Mofras.