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Show 190 THE FUR TRADE ON THE UPPER MISSOURI. 2. Otters: 200 to 300 skins. 3. Buffalo cow skins: 40,000 to 50,000. Ten buffalo hides go to the pack. 4. Canadian weasel (Musetela Canadensis) : 500 to 600. 5. Martin (pine or beech martin) : about the same quantity. 6. Lynx ; the northern lynx (Felis Canadensis): 1,000 to 2,000. 7. Lynx; the southern or wild cat (Felis rufa) : ditto. 8. Red foxes (Canisfuhns) : 2,000. 9. Cross foxes : 200 to 300. 10. Silver foxes: twenty to thirty. Sixty dollars are often paid for a single skin. 11. Minks (Mustela vison) : 2,000. 12. Musk-rats (Ondathra): from 1,000 to 100,000.* According to Captain Back, half a million of these skins are annually imported into London, as this animal is found in equal abundance as far as the coasts of the Frozen Ocean. 13. Deer (Cervus Virginianus and macrotis): from 20,000 to 30,000. Beyond Council Bluffs, scarcely any articles are bartered by the Indians-especially the Joways, Konzas, and the Osages-except the skins of the Cervus Virginianus, which is found in great abundance, but is said to have fallen off there likewise very considerably. The elk (Cervus Canadensis, or major), is not properly comprehended in the trade, as its skin is too thick and heavy, and is, therefore, used for home consumption. The buffalo skin is taken, as before observed, from the cows only, as the leather of the bulls is too heavy. The wolf skins are not at all sought by the Company, that is to say, they do not send out any hunters to procure them; but, if the Indians bring any, they are bought not to create any dissatisfaction, and then they are sold at about a dollar a-piece. The Indians, however, have frequently nothing to offer for barter but their dresses, and painted buffalo robes. The support of so large an establishment as that at Fort Union requires frequent hunting excursions into the prairie; and Mr. Me Kenzie, therefore, maintained here several experienced hunters of a mixed race, who made weekly excursions to the distance of twenty or more miles into the prairie, sought the buffalo herds, and, after they had killed a sufficient number, returned home with their mules well laden. The flesh of the cows is very good, especially the tongues, which are smoked in great numbers, and then sent down to St. Louis. The colossal marrowbones are considered quite a delicacy by the hunters and by the Indians. The consumption of * At Rock River, which falls into the Mississippi, the Indians caught, in 1825, about ] 30,000 musk-rats; in the following year, about half the number; and, in about two years after, these animals were scarcely to be met with. Previous to this time, an Indian caught, in thirty days, as many as 1,600 of them. In South America, there is only one species of wild animal, known to me, whose skins are collected in large quantities. According to D'Orbigny, in the first six months of 1828, above 150,000 dozen Quiyaa were sold, in Corrientes, at from fifteen to eighteen francs the dozen. The Indians hunt this animal, which lives in the morasses, with dogs, and shoot it with arrows. |