Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/89

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Montreal arrive in England. This advantage in time of marketing the furs, would prove so attractive, that Lewis apparently thought the Northwest Company of Canada also would seek the privilege of conveying their furs from the region south and west of Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Columbia for shipment to China.

By establishing stations on the Columbia at various points, and employing a sufficient number of men to handle the business effectively, Lewis foresaw that East India commodities might be carried up the Columbia each spring, and about July these could be exchanged at the upper stations for the furs brought from east of the mountains. The furs would be carried down the river to be shipped across the Pacific; the India goods would reach St. Louis by the end of September each year.

The richest fur country. Lewis considered the Rocky Mountain branches of the Missouri, and all of its streams as far east as the mouth of the Cheyenne, to be "richer in beaver and otter than any other country on earth." The Columbia had fewer beaver and otter, but yet considerable numbers of them, and in addition a variety of other fur bearing animals, bears, the tiger cat, foxes, the martin, etc.

Government aid suggested. He concludes this section of his letter with the words: "If the government will only aid even on a limited scale the enterprise of her citizens I am convinced that we shall soon derive the benefits of a most lucrative trade from this source and in the course of ten or twelve years a tour across