The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-11
FUR TRADERS OF TO-DAY.
HOW VALUABLE SKtVs ARE COL
LECTED FROM TRAPPERS.
bitter warfare Between Rival Companies
knowledge That the Agents Must
Possess -Rarest Furs Are silver n
'BIack Fox Earnings OF Ihc TrapDrrs.

Possess -Rarest Eurs Are silver and
BIack FOx -FarnInss OF me Trapprrs.
1t is significant thas just a hun Ared years
from the last great contest waged by the
Hudsou's Bav Fur Company against rivals
in the vast game preserve OF northern
Canada the old company should be called
upon to face new and powerful opposition.
And for tho third time in the record Of it's
warfares that OPPOSITION ia French.
Since Charles Stuart Frlnted the region
inland from Hudson Ray to the Gentlemen
Ad~venturers," headed by Prince Rupert.
the whole history Of the -Adventurers" has
been one Of struggles against
rivals. Their territory in itself was equal
In area to the whole russian mpire.
Including furs taken by free traders
pedlers. the company called them-the
fur country Of the north yielded pelts TO
the value of more than 81 10000 a year.
Such a prize wac worth fighting for. says
Agnes c. Laut in the Youths Com p1n,on,
and like a lion the old company has fought
from the beginning.
First there were the French poachers,
tramping a thousand miles through the
painless forests, from the st. Lawrence
to the Ottawa, up the Ottawa and overland
to the bay; or sailing around Labrador with
n feet of men Of war, like Iberville and La
Perouse, to sweep the English from the
bay and sail away with a cargo Of half a
million dollars worth OF furs.
When New France passed into the hands
Of the English an enemy as persistent as a
hornet swarmed into the northern domain.
This was the Northwest Company. made
up OF Scotch merchants, who hired the
- -. FL .k. L..A
lopers. rcy7qeurs, traders-set adrift from
the old French fur companies.
Pushing up the Ottawa in their bHgades
Of ninety foot birch anoes, their roydqeur
songs keeping time TO the rhythm OF their
paddles. across the Great Lakes, up the
ssatchewan, down the Mackenzie Piver
TO the Arctic, down the Columbia TO the
Pacific, these free Iances OF a wild world
warfare campcd under the noses of the
cannon bristling through the wallis Of the
Hudson Bay ~reorle's palisaded fur posts.
Thew allied themselves with the Indians
and laughed to scorn the worst that the old
lady, as they called the company, could
do with ner MONOPOLY OF a roval grant.
The end Of this all the world knows
drugged whiskev. the stab Of the assessin's
dagger on the dark wooded trial. ambushed
raids on eacn Others posts. starving each
other out Of certain reTionS bv stealing
incoming prov isions. retaliating by stealing
outgoing furs. open massacre Of Hudson
Bay men at Red River. open destruction OF
the Northwesters' fort at Lac SUPERIOR
the banditti warfare Of the lords Of the north
continued till out Of sheer exhaustion the
two companies were compelled to amalga-
mate.
When the rivals united peace prevailed.
So passed almost a hundred ears. Even
when the compan surrendered its monopoly
Of the fur trade its peaceful prosperity was
unaffected. for after 1871, when colonists
began to pour into Manitoba, the COMPANY
still had the %territor' OF the Saskatchewan,
in area one-third greater than German;
and the basin Of Mackenzie RlI er, which is
half the size of Russia: and the Yukon region,
which ma be compared to Spain; and
northern British Columbia. a third greater
than German and all the region encircling
Hudson Ba from Labrador on the east 70
the Coppermine on the west.
Colonists might Keep pouring in for a
hundred ears and the fur trader rptreatkD
before them. ct there would remain a game
preserve larger than European Russia.
The COMPANY could bring goods into the
country cheaper than the indiV iGual trader.
and offer better terms to the Indian hunter.
Besides. ever" Indian Of ever district was
personally known TO the chief factor. The
compan man could speak the Indians Ian
guaSe; the free trader had to learn it. In the
language Of the campfire. the free trader
was either run out OF the countr : or
went broke and was compelled 10 sue
for provisions from his rivals.
For a hundred yerrs all the free traders
who poaohed on the company's domain
had very little other effect on the Hudson
Bav fur traders than to drive the game
farther afield, from the Red River TO the |
Saskatchewan, and from. the Saskatchewan
en khA AfhnlH nAan hKI $1,000 L. a
scattered guerrilla warfare OF the free
traders opposition tecn concer tire ted and
mustered into what may lie considered a
serious. rival to the ancient ".Adven
turers.'
The newcomer is known a. the French
Company. IL Ia tscked ny the capital Of
Paris, London and ew York fur traders,
and has gathered irto its rar ks the disor-
ganized forces OF the opposition, rio indie
pendent traders, French trappers from
Quef &C. fronticrsmen from the Missouri
ard Texas and Pacilc coast. descendants
Of the old Northwestcrs. Who refused to
go into the urion a hundred years gro.
All know the indian lnrruage. IN nave
been born and fred 10 the life ef III, hurter. |
The majority m the fs III as ven IA. the
Hudson Bay men. For the first time in
century. the Fnslish company is eveLly
matched in its rival
footing amono the Ir6ian hunters OF the
North Is a st nv that " i'll rroF ri |, rPrsin
untold. Il is a story Of the individual and
single handed courage OF men who, year
after year, went alone into the snow padded
forests westward Of the saskatchewan
n Peace rivers with nothing but the
packs on their backs, and who came out
in their words--broks." The In
dams. whom they had Quilted to hunt for
the season, carried their furs To the Hud-
sons Bay Company-in all Likelihood were
already IN debt to tho company.
From the beginning II has been the GUS
tom of the Hudson Bay trader to build
his fur post in a good region. entrench
himself there, and let the Ind an hunters
rndiate from tbs post 10 their d slant fields.
The French Company $ men have followed
different methods. They, too, nave built
their fur posts, but their men scour every
hunting field Ike scouts. It ia nothing
for a man OF theirs to set out in mid inter-
with no companion but his dog-man and
dog carrying provisions on thor backs, tho
q by "A packstrap across ms forehead
tho dog by ropes h.tched over his back
and blaze nus way one. two, tnree hundred
miles through an unbroken forest to seek
"A new hunt g field or secure the hunt OF a
strange tribe OF Indians, or make sure OF
IL