| Skins. | Average value. | |
| Deer, four varieties | 150,000 | 45 cents per lb. |
| Buffalo | 35,000 | 5 dollars per skin |
| Elk | 200 | |
| Beaver | 15,000 | 4.5 dollars per lb. |
| Musk Rat | 500,000 | 12 cents per skin |
| Otters | 5,000 | 6.5 dollars per skin |
| 2,500 | 2 do. | |
| Martin or Sable | 12,000 | 2 do. or more |
| Mink | 10,000 | |
| Silver and Black Fox | 15 | |
| Crop Fox | 100 | 4 dollars per skin |
| Red Fox | 3,000 | 1 do. |
| Grey Fox | 1,000 | 1.5 do. |
| Prairie Fox | 5,000 | .5 do. |
| Bears | 4,000 | 4.5 do. |
| Lynx | 500 | 2.5 do. |
| Wild Cat | 2,000 | 2.5 do. |
| Racoon | 70,000 | .5 do. |
| Wolves | 12,000 | .5 do. |
| Wolverein | 50 | 2.5 do. |
| Panthers | 50 | |
| Badgers | 250 | .25 do. |
besides skunks, ground-hogs, hares, and many others. These are priced at the lowest: in proportion as the skins are finer, so do they yield higher profit. The two companies may be said to receive, between them, skins yearly to the amount of from two to three millions of dollars.
Fable apropos to the subject.
A hare and a fox met one day on the vast prairie, and after a long conversation, they prepared to start upon their several routes. The hare, pleased with the fox, lamented that they would in all probability separate for ever. “No, no,” replied the fox, “we shall meet again, never fear.” “Where?” inquired his companion. “In the hatter’s shop, to be sure,” rejoined the fox, tripping lightly away.
Detroit.—There are some pleasant people in this town, and the society is quite equal to that of the eastern cities. From the constant change and transition which take place in this country, go where you will you are sure to fall in with a certain portion of intelligent, educated people. This is not the case in the remoter portions of the Old Continent, where every thing is settled, and generation succeeds generation, as in some obscure country town. But in America, where all is new, and the country has to be peopled from the other parts, there is a proportion of intelligence and education transplanted with the inferior classes, either from the Eastern States or from the Old World, in whatever quarter you may happen to find yourself.
Left my friends at Detroit with regret, and returned to Buffalo. There is a marked difference between the behaviour of the lower people of the eastern cities and those whom you fall in with in this town: they are much less civil in their behaviour here; indeed, they appear to think rudeness a proof of independence. I went to the theatre, and the behaviour of the majority of the company just reminded me of the Portsmouth and Plymouth theatres. I had forgotten that Buffalo was a fresh-water sea-port town.
Returning to Niagara, I took possession of the roof of the rail-coach, that I might enjoy the prospect. I had not travelled three miles before I perceived a strong smell of burning; at last the pocket of my coat, which was of cotton, burst out into flames, a spark having found its way into it: fortunately (not being insured) there was no property on the premises.
When the celebrated Colonel David Crocket first saw a locomotive, with the train smoking along the rail-road, he exclaimed, as it flew past him, “Hell in harness, by the ’tarnel!”
I may, in juxtaposition with this, mention an Indian idea. Nothing surprised the Indians so much at first, as the percussion for guns: they thought them the ne plus ultra of invention: when, therefore, an Indian was first shewn a locomotive, he reflected a little while, and then said, “I see—percussion.”
There is a beautiful island, dividing the Falls of Niagara, called Goat Island: they have thrown a bridge across the rapids, so that you can now go over. A mill has already been erected there, which is a great pity; it is a contemptible disfigurement of nature’s grandest work.