Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/217

 mated at more than five million francs, or two hundred thousand pounds sterling, in an ordinary year.

To give an idea of this immense commerce, we will limit ourselves to giving from the official abstract the quantity of principal goods sold at public auction December 20, and January 17, last:

It is unnecessary to mention other less important articles. In this enumeration beaver and otter skins constitute a very considerable value.

The articles imported from England by the Company, generally of inferior quality, consist principally of coarse cloths, wearing apparel, ordinary fabrics of various kinds, calico, crockery, glassware, household utensils, common cutlery, copper ornaments for the Indians, carpenters' and joiners' tools. Let us add that if the Company was wrong in selling firearms and powder to the Indians, it has, at least up to the present, avoided spreading among them the use of spiritous liquors.