MINOR FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 73 
tion and proper food, but says that if they are kept too secluded and 
are unaccustomed to seeing strangers and hearing varied sounds they 
become extremely sensitive and difficult to handle if anything unusual 
occurs. His stock consists of 5 pairs of foxes and two additional 
females. Their chief food is sun-cured salmon, with some porcupine 
and rabbit meat. Because of the scarcity of rabbits, Mr. Filardeau 
is raising Belgian hares for fox food. He describes his fox pens as 
follows: 
As for the pens—I have built them differently from the usual way owing to the 
character of the land, a sandy clay which gets very muddy and retains the dampness. 
The pens are built 24 by 40 feet and 6 feet high, with a 2-inch plank floor, and the 
sides are planked 2 feet high; from there up is 14-gauge wire netting. These pens are 
also covered with 16-gauge wire. I keep about 6 inches of gravel and dirt over the 
floor, also fresh sod, which I think absolutely necessary. As for shade, in summer 
time I cut grass and throw it over the wire; I also give them green grass inside the 
pens. The pensare built in two parts, with a wire partition in the center and asliding 
door at each end, giving the foxes a chance for a run and exercise. 
The dens are built outside the pens, and are of double inch plain lumber, with dirt 
packed around them. The dens are connected by means of a spout to the pens. 
There are two dens for each pen. 
Peter Petrovsky, of Uyak, continued operations on Amook Island 
with 3 pairs of silver foxes, 1 cross female and 1 blue male. Only 
2 pups were raised in 1918. Mr. Petrovsky does not consider the 
corral method very satisfactory on account of the prohibition against 
the killing of birds, which makes it difficult to get a sufficient variety 
of food. 
A. B. Somerville forwarded a photograph of the skins taken from 
the ranches operated by him in the Aleutian Islands Reservation. 
These were the first secured since the island was stocked in 1912, and 
resulted in a take of 224 blue and 15 white pelts, which it is stated 
sold for $14,000. 
S. Applegate, of Berkeley, Calif., maintains blue-fox ranches on 
Samalga, Ogliuga, and Skagul Islands, within the Aleutian Islands 
aaa In regard to his operations Mr. Applegate writes as 
ollows: 
{ do not know the number of foxes on either of the islands, as they are allowed to 
run free, so of course I would not know the number of young born. From the reports 
of the natives who look after the foxes for me, the litters usually number 5 to 10 young 
ones; therefore I would judge that they will probably average about 7 young at a 
birth. As many as 14 have been seen in one litter. 
My foxes receive no artificial food, as there seems to be plenty of natural food on 
the three islands I have chosen. One year I had a fox or two killed each month, 
just to see in what condition they were. I was told they were found to be quite fat, 
so I concluded it was’ unnecessary to import food for them. ‘Their fur in the season 
of killing has always been found to be long, thick, and glossy, indicating a healthy 
bodily condition. 
I have used corrals and have found that it was a quite impossible, or at least a very 
uncertain, way to raise them, for they would not breed. I believe the same thing 
has been experienced elsewhere where it has been attempted. 
As to the future prospects, I do not expect any more from my islands than they have 
yielded in the past. From Samalga Island I will average between 45 and 50 foxes 
each year. From Ogliuga and Skagul I can not say just what number I can take, as 
I have had only one season’s killing from each. 
The islands are all small, Samalga being 43 miles long and less than a quarter of a 
mile wide. Ogliuga and Skagul are only about 300 yards apart, and each is about 
24 miles in length. 
As to the number of young foxes successfully raised, from my 18 years’ experience 
on Samalga Island, I should say that about one and a half survives out of each litter; 
or, in other words, about 80 per cent never attain full growth. This great loss is due 
to their fighting among themselves and to their being preyed upon by ravens, large 
gulls, and eagles, particularly eagles. I have been paying the natives for many years 
