314 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



When this territory was first inundated by the waters 

 from the Caernarvon crevasse the department requested the 

 Reparations Committee of the City of New Orleans to fur- 

 nish figures as to past yields in this territory. As the books 

 of the fur dealers were closed to the department, blank re- 

 port forms were sent to all trappers of the region so that 

 they could supply us data, through sworn affidavits, of the 

 number of muskrats taken during the 1926-7 season, the 

 acreage trapped, the prices secured, and to whom sales of 

 pelts were made. 



A total of 418 such sworn affidavits were returned and 

 an analysis of the reports proves to be very interesting, as 

 they show that those taking muskrats in the St. Bernard 

 section of the Delacroix Island territory averaged 31.11 

 pelts to the acre, the figures indicating that 481,053 musk- 

 rats had been taken on 15,462 acres. 



The sworn reports from the trappers in the Plaquemines 

 parish section showed that 713,939 muskrats had been taken 

 off of 20,174 acres, or an average per acre of 35 pelts. 



From these figures it would appear that an abnormally 

 high number of muskrats were taken off this area and 

 might cause those unfamiliar with trapping conditions in 

 this particular territory to doubt the reliability of the fig- 

 ures. A number of instances of high averages per ace, as 

 73.82 per cent, 60.50 per cent, 64.06 per cent, 64.35 per cent, 

 71.53 per cent, etc., were reported. 



In St. Bernard parish, Richard Acosta & Sons declare 

 in their sworn affidavits they had a trapping area of 128 

 acres, in which they took 9,440 rats, or an average of 73.82 

 per cent. This is the highest average reported. 



The lowest average reported on the St. Bernard list is 

 Jordan Freeman. He reports that he took 700 'rats off of 

 300 acres, which gives him an average of 2 3 per cent. 

 This is approached only by Felicon Nunez, who reports 

 that he took 150 rats off of 50 acres, an average of 3 

 to an acre, and John Washington, who trapped 300 acres 

 and secured 650 rats, his average being 2.16 per cent. 



