922 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



trapper is much pestered by Red-squirrels and Canada-jays, 

 which tug at the bait and get caught. 



The third kind is the old-fashioned box-trap. When this 

 is set with a large bait, it ensures the Marten being kept in food 

 and comfort for days, and thus the trapper has the option of 

 killing it mercifully and getting its fur, without injury by trap, 

 climate, or marauders. Furthermore, he may nowadays take 

 it to market alive, and get a much larger price. 



The Winnipeg market quotations for March 26, 1904, 

 were: For prime Marten, large dark, $6 to $12; large brown, 

 1^3.50 to ^7; light pale, ^2.50 to ^5. New York prices 

 were in advance of these; ^20 to $30 is a common price for 

 the choicest skins to-day, and the trend of Marten is steadily 

 upward. 



At the London annual fur sales, at C. M. Lampson & 

 Co.'s (64 Queen Street, E. C), March, 1906, 21,136 Martens 

 were sold. The highest price reached was 290 shillings (^70) 

 each for 24 very dark large skins of exceptional beauty; and 

 140 shillings ($33.60) each for 58 extra fine dark skins. But 

 50 shillings to 100 shillings ($12 to $24) each were ruling prices 

 for No. I dark selected Marten; 30 shillings to 40 shillings 

 ($7.20 to ^9.60) were usual prices for second-class skins; 

 third-class skins brought about 20 shillings ($4.80), from 

 which they graded down to fourth-class, of which 92 were 

 sold at 5 shillings ($1.20) each. 



Russian Sable, however, brought about three times as 

 much, and one lot of 8 extra large No. i-A, colour black with 

 silver, brought the astonishing price of 980 shillings ($235) 

 each skin. This is probably record price, but these 8 were the 

 pick of 12,007 skins. 



During the eighty-five years, 1821 to 1905 inclusive, the 

 Hudson's Bay Company collected 7,006,554 skins of this 

 species, an average of 82,418 for each year. The lowest was 

 25,524 in 1829; the highest, 177,052, in 1854. The average 

 for the ten years, 1895 to 1905, was 63,926. 



