The store was built near the site of Government House and according to Moses H. Perley it was carried away by one of those periodical ice-jams for which the vicinity of St. Ann's Point has been noted from time immemorial. See illustration on preceding page of a recent ice-jam at this place. Another store was built and Benjamin Atherton took charge of it. In addition to trade with the Indians he did business with the white settlers under the name and title of Atherton & Co. Furs and produce were frequently transported to St. John from the post at St. Anns in summer in gondolas and in the winter on ice by means of horses and sleds. The volume of business in the aggregate was quite large for those days. In addition to the exportation of furs and peltry to the value of $40,000, the company sent to New England and the West Indies large quantities of pollock, mackerel and codfish taken in the Bay. The gasperaux fishery at St. John was also an important factor in their trade; in the seven years previous to the Revolutionary war Simonds & White shipped to Boston 4,000 barrels of gasperaux valued at about $12,000. They also shipped quantities of bass, shad, salmon and sturgeon. Perhaps their profits would have been even greater had not many of the men who were at other times in their employ engaged in fishing on their own account. The community was not an ideal one for Mr. Simonds writes: "In the spring we must go into the Weirs every tide to keep our men from selling bait to the fishermen for rum, which is not only attended with the loss of the fish so sold, but of the men's time who would drink so to excess as not to be able to do anything." In the Champlain's map of St. John harbor and its surroundings a lake or pond is shown at the spot where the Union depot and freight sheds stand today. At the outlet of this pond a dam and tide mill were built by Simonds and White in the year 1766. The mill was put in operation the next season and from that day to this lumber has been one of St. John's staple articles of export. Primitive as was this saw-mill some difficulty was experienced in procuring proper hands to run it. James Simonds in his letter of June 20, 1767, to Hazen & Jarvis writes: