APPENDIX. 275 



BREEDING THE MINK. 



CASADAGA, Chantauqua Co., N. Y., Jan. 21. 



" I have just availed myself of an opportunity to fulfil 

 your desire that I should visit the ' Minkery' at this place, 

 concerning which a few brief paragraphs have floated 

 through the newspapers, and give to the readers of the 

 " Express" some description of the very novel and interests 

 ing experiment undertaken by Messrs. Phillips & Wood- 

 cock, in breeding and domesticating the Mink. I found 

 their ' peculiar institution' as curious as I had been led to 

 expect, and as well worth an examination. It possesses 

 not only the interest which naturalists would find in it, 

 from the remarkable opportunity it affords for studying 

 the habits of a singular and little known animal, but it 

 represents one of the beginnings of a new branch of animal 

 propagation and domestic culture, which is destined, I have 

 no doubt at all, to assume great importance hereafter. 

 When we consider, on the one hand, how constantly a 

 demand for the finer furs is increasing from year to year, 

 while the supply still more rapidly diminishes, as the ani- 

 mals furnishing such furs are exterminated in their wild 

 state by the encroachment of civilization upon their haunts, 

 we can see very well that the question whether these fur- 

 bearing animals are capable of domestic propagation or not 

 is a serious one, and that to determine by experiment that 

 they are, is to found a description of business which can 

 hardly fail to grow extensive and important. If the wealthy 

 society of northern climates has no recourse but to the 

 trapper for its furs, it will soon have to dispense with that 

 elegant luxury ; for the wild domain of nature is being so 

 rapidly narrowed on both continents, that the trapper will, 

 at no distant day, have his hunting field limited to the 

 polar circle. 



" But here, at this juncture, when the prospect of an 



