This he thought to be a plan of the Hudson's Bay Company, to regain their failing prestige and to strike a blow at the Nor'-Wester trade.

To the fur trader or the rancher, the incoming of the farmer is ever obnoxious.

The beaver and the mink desert the streams whenever the plowshare disturbs the soil.

The deer flee to their coverts, the wolf and the fox are exterminated, and even the muskrat has a troubled existence when the dog and cat, the domestic animals, make their appearance.

The proposed settlement is to be opposed, and Lord Selkirk's plans thwarted at any cost.