his volume.

Trade is carried on with the natives by means of a standard valuation,
called in some parts of the country a _castor_. This is to obviate the
necessity of circulating money, of which there is little or none,
excepting in the colony of Red River. Thus, an Indian arrives at a fort
with a bundle of furs, with which he proceeds to the Indian
trading-room. There the trader separates the furs into different lots,
and, valuing each at the standard valuation, adds the amount together,
and tells the Indian (who has looked on the while with great interest
and anxiety) that he has got fifty or sixty casters; at the same time he
hands the Indian fifty or sixty little bits of wood in lieu of cash, so
that the latter may know, by returning these in payment of the goods for
which he really exchanges his skins, how fast his funds decrease. The
Indian then looks round upon the bales of cloth, powder-horns, guns,
blankets, knives, etcetera, with which the shop is filled, and after a
good while makes up his mind to have a small blanket. This being given
him, the trader tells him that the price is six castors; the purchaser
hands back six of his little bits of wood, and selects something else.
In this way he goes on till all his wooden cash is expended; and then,
packing up his goods, departs to show his treasures to his wife, and
another Indian takes his place. The value of a castor is from one to
two shillings. The natives generally visit the establishments of the
Company twice a year--once in October, when they bring in the produce of
their autumn hunts; and again in March, when they come in with that of
the great winter hunt.

The number of castors that an Indian makes in a winter hunt varies from
fifty to two hundred, according to his perseverance and activity, and
the part of the country in which he hunts. The largest amount I ever
heard of was made by a man called Piaquata-Kiscum, who brought in furs
on one occasion to the value of two hundred and sixty castors. The poor
fellow was soon afterwards poisoned by his relatives, who were jealous
of his superior abilities as a hunter, and envious of the favour shown
him by the white men.

After the furs are collected in spring at all the different outposts,
they are packed in conveniently-sized bales, and forwarded, by means of
boats and canoes, to the three chief depots on the sea-coast--namely,
Fort Vancouver, at the mouth of the Columbia River, on the shores of