The principal business of the Hudson's Bay Company was the purchasing of furs from the Indians, in exchange for arms and ammunition, clothes, and other commodities imported from the United Kingdom. Its prosperity depended upon good relations being maintained with the aborigines. Its officers were able to travel everywhere with freedom and safety, and could rely upon the friendliness of the red men. Advances made to the Indians for their hunting outfits or in times of scarcity were nearly always repaid. On the other hand, the Indians knew that any notes they might receive upon the trading posts, from peripatetic officers a thousand miles away from headquarters, would be honoured on presentation. The foundation of these friendly relations was confidence, and the knowledge the Indians acquired of the white man and his ways during the long administration of the Company made the transfer of the territory to Canada comparatively easy when the time for the surrender arrived. Its policy, which has been followed by successive Governments of Canada, has enabled the country to avoid those Indian wars which were of frequent occurrence in the early days of settlement in the western parts of the United States. Even in the half-breed disturbance in 1869 and 1870 already referred to, and in that of 1885, none of the Indians, with a few exceptions, could be induced to take arms against the forces of law and order. The fur trade over such an immense area was necessarily important; but at the same time, from natural reasons, it was bound to diminish in the more accessible parts where settlement in the future was regarded as possible. There was always a tendency on the part of the Indians to kill as many animals as possible, simply for the skins. They held the belief, some people say, that the more they killed the more rapidly would the animals multiply. Their motives therefore may have been conscientious, but I am afraid they were not altogether unconnected with the prospect of immediate profit. There is not much large game now in the regions traversed by the Canadian Pacific Railway, except perhaps in the more inaccessible districts between the Lakes and Hudson's Bay, and in the territory north and north-west of the river Saskatchewan. The buffalo, which used to furnish the Indian with food, shelter, and raiment, is almost extinct, and it is possible to travel over the prairie for hundreds of miles without seeing any wild animals larger than coyotes and gophers. Deer of various kinds are found occasionally, and bears still less frequently, and it may be said with truth that hunting in Canada, whether for pleasure or for trade, now entails a good deal of hard work....