Michigan historical collections . ight. In the copy volumes of the American Fur Companys corre-spondence, now kept as relics in the John Jacob Astor hotel on Mack-inac Island, I find the following quotations as given in 1820 by RamseyCrooks,^ the great manager of that company: Beaver at four dollars(per lb.) is high, but rather than lose I would give that. Good rats(muskrats), twenty-five cents. Bears are worse than ever and oughtnot to cost more than two dollars and fifty cents for five. Cubs, onedollar to one dollar and fifty cents. Martens, seventy-five cents. Raccoon,thirty-seven and one-h
Michigan historical collections . ight. In the copy volumes of the American Fur Companys corre-spondence, now kept as relics in the John Jacob Astor hotel on Mack-inac Island, I find the following quotations as given in 1820 by RamseyCrooks,^ the great manager of that company: Beaver at four dollars(per lb.) is high, but rather than lose I would give that. Good rats(muskrats), twenty-five cents. Bears are worse than ever and oughtnot to cost more than two dollars and fifty cents for five. Cubs, onedollar to one dollar and fifty cents. Martens, seventy-five cents. Raccoon,thirty-seven and one-half cents. Fisher, one dollar. Lynx, one dollar andfifty cents to two dollars. Common wild-cat, thirty-three and one-thirdcents. Deer not over twenty-five cents per pound for those in season;their winter skins wont pay charges. Mink, twenty-five cents. Silverfox, four dollars. Very best Otter not over four dollars. For sketch of Ramsey Crooks see Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, , p. 347. 64 ANNUAL MEETING, RAMSEY CROOKS. As an indication of the profits which sometimes attended the com-panys operations, Mr. Croolis reports in a letter from New York thenext year that half the muskrats sold there at forty cents and the otherhalf at forty-eight cents. There must have been jnst then a specialdemand for that class of skins which advanced the price, as in thefollowing year, namely in 1822, we find them paying at Mackinac formuskrats thirty-five and thirty-seven and one-half cents. Of course,prices fluctuated, and in 1830 we find the prices at Mackinac had ad-vanced to five dollars per pound for beaver, and the martens were bring-ing one dollar and twenty-five cents instead of seventy-five cents asformerl}, while muskrats had declined to twenty-two cents. The Indiansat the earlier stages at least of the trade, had little thought of the valueof furs. They hunted, not for sport, nor for commerce, but for food,subsisting on the flesh. The skins of the animals were
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