An annual Council composed of the Governor-General, chief factors and chief traders, is held at York Factory. Before this body are brought the reports of the trade of each district; propositions for new enterprises, and modifications of old ones; and all these and other matters deemed important, being acted upon, the proceedings had thereon and the reports from the several districts are forwarded to the Board of Directors in London, and subjected to its final order. This shrewd Company never allow their territory to be overtrapped. If the annual return from any well trapped district be less in any year than formerly, they order a less number still to be taken, until the beaver and other fur-bearing animals have time to increase. The income of the company {254} is thus rendered uniform, and their business perpetual. The nature and annual value of the Hudson Bay Company’s business in the territory which they occupy, may be learned from the following table, extracted from Bliss’s work on the trade and industry of British America, in 1831:[66] Skins. No. each £. _s._ _d._ £. _s._ _d._ Beaver 126,944 ” 1 5 0 158,680 0 0 Muskrat 375,731 ” 0 0 6 9,393 5 6 Lynx 58,010 ” 0 8 0 23,204 0 0 Wolf 5,947 ” 0 8 0 2,378 16 0 Bear 3,850 ” 1 0 0 3,850 0 0 Fox 8,765 ” 0 10 0 4,382 10 0 Mink 9,298 ” 0 2 3 929 16 0 Raccoon 325 ” 0 1 6 24 7 6 Tails 2,290 ” 0 1 0 114 10 0 Wolverine 1,744 ” 0 3 0 261 12 0 Deer 645 ” 0 3 0 96 15 0 Weasel 34 ” 0 0 6 00 16 0 -------- ----------- ----------------- £203,316 9 0 Some idea may be formed of the net profit of this business, from the facts that the shares of the company’s stock, which originally cost £100, are at 100 per cent premium, and that the dividends range from ten per cent upward, and this too while they are creating out of the net proceeds an immense reserve fund, to be {255} expended in keeping other persons out of the trade. In 1805 the Missouri Fur Company established a trading-post on the headwaters of the Saptin.[67] In 1806 the North-West Fur Company of Canada established one on Frazer’s Lake, near the northern line of Oregon.[68] In March, 1811, the American Pacific Fur Company built Fort Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia.[69] In July of the same year, a partner of the North-West Fur Company of Canada descended the great northern branch of the Columbia to Astoria. This was the first appearance of the British fur traders in the valleys drained by this river.[70]