THE FUR COUNTRY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12768, 14 April 1910, Page 1

THE FUR COUNTRY.

The Hudson Bay Company of which we read with delight in our youth, is still flourishing. The dividends are still large, but the. Company has no longer a monopoly. Since it relinquish, ed its charter, nearly forty years ago, the fur trade has been open to all. but it was not until a few years ago that the Company's monopoly was seriously disturbed. Then came a powerful rival into the field— Revillons Brothers of £?"?•„ 4 writer the "World's Work tells us that one day about eight. years ago a vessel sent out by tho Paris firm to prospect was wrecked SS i * a P o^ oi tixQ m Pany in Hudson Bay, and the crew scrambled ashore with nothing but the clothes they wore, and the money in- their pockets. They asked the Company for provisions ; the Company had none for sale. They offered any price. for food, and a man to guide them the thousand miles over land ; the Company had no provisions to spare and the guides were away hunting. There is this to be said for the Company's underlines (with whom the, responsibility of tho refusal rested), that never a winter passes but provisions run short. Whxsn the new-comers talked hotly of inhumanity, the Company told them they md brought misfortune on themselves by invading the. Bay. The invaders wont to the English Church Mission, and the clergyman in charge threw open his doors to them and made them welcome to such a fare as he had. The 'Company at once told him that if lie Helped the. Company's rivals he need expect no help from the Company The clergyman told the Company* in fit and proper language that he would do exactly what foe liked,, and he did. He provided the stranded men with food nnd canoes, and they reached civilisation safely. The missionary became a bishop, and a service of solid silver irom Paris adorns his sideboard. The lievillons were not deterred by this incident. They systematically invaded the Company's territory, planting a post wherever there were mon of the Company. Trading posts extend from .Labrador to the Itockies, and nearly to the Arctic ocean. Skins are still abundant after two hundred years of hunting, and the writer does not think that the supply will ever fall off very much, for there is a liuge tract in the north thick with game, but impossible of settlement.