MINOR FUR INDUSTRIES. 117 



MUSKRAT (tENA INDIAN NAME, "BEKENALA"). 



Miisla-ats are qiiito coramon in all suitable situations throughout 

 Alaska. In the interior the districts suitable for muskrats are 

 usually limited in area, while along the lower rivers, near the coast, 

 and in the tiuidra belt, suitable territory is found nearly everywhere. 

 They are particularly abundant on the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim. 



The ice in many parts of Alaska does not go out until May or even 

 later, and the muskrats can not be taken untU then. In recognition 

 of this condition and the further fact that the muskrat fur remains 

 prime in most parts of Alaska until June, the open season for musk- 

 rats has been extended to June 1. 



Muskrats are not often trapped or hunted by white men, who 

 regard them as too insignificant to merit their attention. They are 

 therefore hunted chiefly by the Indians, who usually secure them by 

 shooting rather tlian by trapping. The Indians watch for the 

 muskrats as they swim about in the slouglis and ponds and shoot 

 them with 22-caliber rifles. 



As other kinds of fur become scarcer and the value of muskrat 

 pelts mcreases, tliis animal will be hunted more assiduously, and 

 white men will engage in the business. 



Although muskrats are chiefly nocturnal or crepuscular in their 

 habits they are often seen swimming about and feeding in the day- 

 time, and it is then they are usually hunted. 



One rarely sees a muskrat house in the interior of Alaska; they 

 apparently live mostly in holes in the bank. 



Eed foxes were formerly quite plentiful on the hills and ranges 

 surrounding the Tanana Valley, and fairly abundant over most of 

 the interior of Alaska. They were until recently quite abundant on 

 the Ilealy River, but one is seldom seen in that region now, a condi- 

 tion due, it is claimed, to the use of poison about 10 years ago. 



The headwaters of the Nenana River are now the best fox grounds 

 in the Tanana Valley. Poison was used in that region several years 

 ago, but the reprehensible practice was discontinued with the result 

 that foxes are increasing in that region. Recently several valuable 

 skins of black and cross foxes have been obtained there. Wlierever 

 red foxes occur, black, silver, and cross foxes (all color phases of the 

 red fox) are occasionally found. Some very fine ones have been 

 secured along the Alaska range in the upper Nenana and Mount 

 McKinley region. 



White foxes are found in considerable numbers along the Bering Sea 

 and Arctic coasts. Large numbers are obtained in the northern parts 

 of Seward Peninsula, and still larger quantities come into Alaska 

 from Siberia. 



