Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/392

374 that a regular custom-house be established at Monterey.

The fur trade is a branch of Californian commerce respecting which we have but little information for the period covered by this chapter. Foreigners secured most of the otter skins by contraband methods; the Indians killed a few animals as in former years; and in several instances Californians were regularly licensed by the territorial authorities to engage in otter-hunting on the coast. Hardly a vessel sailed without carrying away more or less skins, which all traders were eager to obtain. The authorities, both of nation and territory, understood the importance of this export, and made some weak and unsuccessful efforts to develop it, or at least to secure the legal revenue which even as carried on at the time it should yield.

A slight controversy about the obtaining of salt from the salinas near Los Angeles in 1834 brought the general subject before the authorities. The pueblo claimed the salinas and refused the request of San Fernando and San Gabriel to use them. The decision locally is not known, but from communications between Ramirez, Herrera, and Figueroa, it appears that the estanco on salt had not been very strictly