Coureur de bois
French-Canadian independent fur traders
A coureur des bois (French pronunciation: [kuʁœʁ de bwa], runner of the woods) was a French Canadian man who engaged in the fur trade. They trapped and traded the hides of many animals, especially beaver. The coureurs des bois worked in eastern North America from the late 1700s, moving up toward Hudson Bay and across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean by the 19th century. Many worked for the Hudson's Bay Company of Great Britain.
