Otter skins
This selections of furs is displayed at Fort Langley, but the same furs would be found at any HBC fort in the territory.
This story has on odd beginning: you would not think that a story about Otter Skins would have anything to do with the construction of a fur trade fort, would you? But it does.
Here’s the story. In the summer of 1833, Peter Skene Ogden sailed to the northwest coast to build Fort McLoughlin, on McLoughlin Bay, near modern day Bella Bella. He was in overall charge of the forts on the northwest coast at this time, and he and Chief Factor John McLoughlin wanted to build a series of posts up the northwest coast that would help to defeat both the American ship captains that traded for furs, and the Russian American Company traders that were on the coast north of the Nass River estuary, where Fort Simpson would be built a year later.
At this time, the HBC men were considering the construction of a new fort in the Stikine River valley, an area that was known to be rich in furs. A treaty between the Russian and British governments granted the HBC the right to trade on the inland side of the ten-mile-wide Russian owned strip of land along the coast, and to use the rivers to reach the interior — as long as they did not interfere, nor trade, with the Indigenous people who lived within Russian territory.
So, when all looked good at Fort McLoughlin, Ogden sailed north to the Stikine River, and explored the river in open boats until he found a location for a fort. Then he left.
However, the Russians learned that he was there. One year later, on June 18, 1834, Ogden returned to the Stikine River. There he discovered that a Russian American Company post now stood at the mouth of Stikine River. Standing offshore from the half-built post was a Russian ship, called the Chichagoff, well armed with 14 guns and carrying a crew of 84. The Russians refused to allow the HBC men from going upriver to build their new fort as they had planned. According to Ogden, the Russian commander, Captain Sarembo, told Ogden’s representatives that he..
would make use of the force he had against us, if we attempt to proceed up the river in our boats, but he did not deny we had a right to erect an establishment in the interior on English Territory, but we had no right to navigate these Straits.
The Stikine chiefs fully supported the Russians in their desire to prevent the HBC men from ascending the Stikine. “They assumed a tone I was not in the habit of hearing,” Ogden said, “and requested to know if we had come here with the intention of erecting an Establishment.” The chiefs had no objection to the HBC men setting up a fort at the mouth of the river (which, of course, they could not do), but on learning Ogden intended to go upriver, they told him, bluntly, that he and his men would not go.
Finally, on June 29, 1834, Ogden admitted defeat and the Dryad sailed away from the Stikine. As he still carried fort-building material aboard the ship, he decided to remove Fort Simpson from its inconvenient location deep in the estuary of the Nass River, to a much better location at the mouth of the river. On December 14, he returned to Fort Vancouver with the news of his failure to build his post on the Stikine.
Under international law, Peter Skene Ogden had the right to use the rivers that ran through Russian owned territory to reach the British owned interior, and to build a fort there. So, on Ogden’s return to Fort Vancouver, Ogden, McLoughlin, and James Douglas set about preparing the many reports that would be presented to the British Government, via Governor Simpson and the HBC’s London Committee. Douglas carried these important papers across the Rocky Mountains to Red River in the 1835 York Factory Express, and gave them to Governor Simpson at the Annual Meeting. And this explains why he was so anxious and testy on his journey up the Columbia River to the Athabasca River and beyond, and so relaxed on his return journey.
When I wrote The York Factory Express, I knew all this. I just did not connect the two stories together.
The report reached Red River in June 1835, and London in the autumn. The London Committee immediately contacted the Foreign Office, which immediately opened legal discussions with the Russian government. Four years later a settlement was reached: the agreement was signed in Hamburg, Germany, on January 25, 1839, by Governor George Simpson for the HBC, and Baron Ferdinand Wrangell for the Russian American Company. In this settlement, the Russians allowed the HBC to lease a 350-mile long strip of continental coastline that ran south of Cape Spencer, on Cross Sound, for a period of ten years. The Hudson’s Bay Company also took possession of the establishment of Redoubt St. Dionysius, the Russian post at Point Highfield, where Peter Skene Ogden had lost his argument with the Russians four years earlier. The HBC renamed it Fort Stikine.
But the Otter Skins? The agreement that both the HBC men and the Russians signed stated, among other conditions, that “the Hudson’s Bay Company shall pay or deliver to the Russian American Company an annual rent 2000 seasoned Land Otter Skins (excluding Cub and damaged Skins) taken or hunted on the west side of the Rocky Mountains during the said term of Ten Years…” That was fine: but the settlement went further. “And that the Hudsons Bay Company do further sell to the Russian American Company 3000 seasoned Land Otter Skins taken or hunted on the East side the Rocky Mountains for the said term of Ten Years at the price of thirty two shillings sterling per skin deliverable annually in like manner to the Agent of the Russian American Company on the Northwest Coast…” It was this delivery of 3,000 Otter Skins from the east side of the Rocky Mountains that caused problems for the incoming York Factory Express.
Because, how else were these furs going to get across the Mountains?
The duty of bringing in the Otter skins every year from the Saskatchewan District fell to the incoming York Factory Express, now called the Columbia Express. If this agreement was signed in 1839, then perhaps the first batch of Otter skins was brought across the mountains in 1840. However, I don’t actually know when the first delivery was made.
Nor do I know when the first non-delivery happened. But I do know the story of the incoming Express of 1846, in which Paul Kane, the artist, was a passenger! They didn’t even make it to Jasper’s House with the packs of Otter Skins! In fact, they barely made it past Fort Assiniboine, when:
At 2 o’clock p.m. we embarked [from Fort Assiniboine], and continued travelling slowly on, against a very strong current, for five days. The water was very low, which added greatly to our difficulties. We saw no game nor Indians to break the monotony of our labour, and the nights and mornings were becoming very cold.
October 15th. When we stopped to take breakfast it was very cold and snowing. We held a council, and it was determined that, as the weather had set in so bad, five men and one boat, with the clerk [John] Charles, return back to Fort Assiniboine with the Russian packs of Otter Skins. We were now all obliged to crowd into one boat, the others having gone back; and were frequently obliged to disembark and lighten the boat…
So, in 1846, Paul Kane made it across the Mountains, but the Russian Otter Skins did not. That meant, of course, that they were left for the next incoming Columbia Express to deliver, along with those of their own year. Thomas Lowe, who was in charge of this Express, says:
Thursday September 30: Very cloudy but fortunately no rain. Arrived at Fort Assiniboine about noon, and found that the Guide had got our three boats repaired and in the water. Had the different cargoes divided tonight. There are 35 pieces per boat, exclusive of 3 bags Pemican each boat for provisions for the men on the Athabasca. Besides the 40 packs Otters and 20 pieces sundry for Jasper’s House which we brought with us, we likewise take with us from [Fort] Assiniboine the 40 packs Otters left last season. With the 4 men lent by Mr. Harriott, there will be 8 men per boat, including the steersman. Having brought a keg of Rum from Edmonton to be given to the men, I served out a dram to all hands, after which they had a dance at the Fort before beginning their hardships in the Athabasca.
Whew! That means there are 80 packs of Otter Skins on this one expedition across the Rocky Mountains. Thomas Lowe had his work cut out for him! On Sunday, October 3, the Express reached the place where the Otter Skins had been sent back in 1846, “by Mr. Richard Lane last year, when he found he could proceed with them no farther.”
Lowe’s Express made it to Jasper’s House without mentioning any difficulties with the packs, and the only thing they seemed to do differently once at Jasper’s House, was to send a canoe upriver so they could easily cross the packs at the Grand Traverse. Thomas Lowe recorded that they “Started from Jasper’s House this forenoon with 54 loaded horses having only 10 engaged men and 4 Indians with us, 6 of our men being off in the boat. As there is but little chance of our getting the packs across this season, on account of the depth of snow in the mountains, we take with us materials for making snow shoes. Had much difficulty in starting, the horses being wild and the men awkward, and got in consequence only as far as the head of the lake, where we encamped.” At the Grand Traverse they crossed the packs in the boat, and swam the horses, encamping on the opposite shore. The weather continued horrible, but it does seem as if they got the packs to Boat Encampment, or most of them at least. As they tumbled down the Columbia River, Lowe said they travelled in four boats, with 23 pieces per boat. That is 72 packs! It almost sounds as if almost all the Otter Skins made it into the Columbia District this year.
So, that was 1847. What happened in 1848? Again, the leader is Thomas Lowe, and we look to his journal to figure out what happened. Presumably he would be taking only 40 packs of Otter Skins away from Edmonton House.
He doesn’t mention Otter Skins on leaving Fort Edmonton, although it is clear there are packs. But there would be, because he is also carrying in the Jasper’s House Outfit. The incoming men arrived at Fort Assiniboine, where, he said, “Remained at Assiniboine all day, and had our two boats property caulked & gummed & allowed them to remain sunk in the water all night. Took from Assiniboine 8 bags of Pemican, which we found in the store here. Divided the cargoes & crews tonight. I expected to have found a large canoe here, but none can be had, and we are obliged to embark all on two boats. There are upwards of 40 pieces per boat, also the men’s bags, which are not few. There are also 16 men per boat, besides passengers.”
That’s a crowd! (but they reduced the crowd by making everyone walk up the river bank, “like gentlemen.”) They may also have left some packs behind, although Lowe doesn’t say so. They made good progress up the Athabasca River with their eighty packs, which included however many of the Otters skins that were being sent over the Mountains this year.
Lowe’s incoming Express arrived at Jasper’s House on October 9, 1848, and Lowe “had the boats unloaded at once on the opposite side of the River….Had a dance tonight at the house, and there was no want of women as there are about a dozen lodges of Freemen here.” The Otter Skins?
When they started out the next morning, they had 34 horses, and 27 of them were loaded. Presuming that each horse carried at least two packs (and we don’t know whether they did), then that is 54 packs, which probably means about 40 packs of Otter Skins (perhaps) and the remainder the men’s personal possessions. I think it is likely that the men’s personal possessions were not as large as the packs of Otters Skins, and so some of the horses might have carried more than two packs.
But now it seems that Paul Fraser, and possibly his family, is travelling with them. Well, Paul Fraser is definitely not here: in 1849 he came into the territory with Eden Colvile, travelling from McLeod Lake and Fort St. James over the brigade trail to Fort Langley and Fort Vancouver. I think someone has suggested that his family had gone upriver to meet him in 1848, and he didn’t show? Anyway, whatever happened, on leaving Boat Encampment the incoming Express travelled in three boats, with twenty pieces per boat, and 16 men. I think this clearly indicates that some packs of Otters Skins came in with Lowe’s 1848 Express: I just don’t know how many.
So the Russians got their furs, or at least most of them, although they were sometimes delayed by bad weather and deep snow. There were no guarantees: anything could happen, and accidents did happen, as we know.
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved