Then being sent to the West, they were taken to the far points in the ensuing winter, where they were exchanged for furs. The furs reached Montreal in the next autumn, when they were stored to harden, and were not to be sold or paid for before the following season. This was forty-two months after the goods were ordered in Canada. This trade was a very heavy one to conduct, inasmuch as allowing a merchant one year's credit, he had still two years to carry the burden after the value of the goods had been considered as cash. Toward the end of the century a single year's produce was enormous. One such year was represented by 106,000 beavers, 32,000 marten, 11,800 mink, 17,000 musquash, and, counting all together, not less than 184,000 skins. The agents necessary to carry on this enormous volume of trade were numerous. Sir Alexander Mackenzie informs us that there were employed in the concern, not including officers or partners, 50 clerks, 71 interpreters and clerks, 1,120 canoe-men, and 35 guides. The magnitude of the operations of this Company may be seen from the foregoing statements. The capital required by the agents of the concern in Montreal, the number of men employed, the vast quantities of goods sent out in bales made up for the western trade, and the enormous store of furs received in exchange, all combined to make the business of the North-West Company an important factor in Canadian life. Canada was then in her infancy. Upper Canada was not constituted a province until the date of the formation of the North-West Company. Montreal and Quebec, the only places of any importance, were small towns. The absence of manufactures, agriculture, and means of inter-communication or transport, led to the North-West Company being the chief source of money-making in Canada. As the fur merchants became rich from their profits, they bought seigniories, built mansions, and even in some cases purchased estates in the old land. Simon McTavish may be looked upon as a type. After a most active life, and when he had accumulated a handsome competence, Simon McTavish owned the Seigniory of Terrebonne, receiving in 1802 a grant of 11,500 acres in the township of Chester. He was engaged at the time of his death, which took place in 1804, in erecting a princely mansion at the foot of the Mountain in Montreal. For half a century the ruins of this building were the dread of children, and were known as McTavish's "Haunted House." The fur-trader's tomb may still be recognized by an obelisk enclosed within stone walls, near "Ravenscrag," the residence of the late Sir Hugh Allan, which occupies the site of the old ruin. _Surely the glory of the lords of the lakes and the forest has passed away._ CHAPTER XV. VOYAGES OF SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.