FUR-SEAL INDUSTRY. 101 
During the remainder of the season foxes gathered about the trap in large numbers 
nightly, but many had become trap-shy and could not be induced to enter in any- 
thing approximating the number taken during the first two nights. Contrary to the 
writer’s previous experience, not one night was a failure. The nearest to a failure 
was the night of January 11, when only one fox was caught, and this is accounted for 
by the fact that during all that day and up to within two hours of opening the trap 
a gasoline engine was in operation within 100 feet of the trap, and it is certain that 
the noise and odor of the engine kept foxes away until very late at night. That night 
an unusually large amount of food was placed outside the trap after the latter was 
closed, and by morning it was entirely consumed, thus showing that a large number 
had fed there later in the night. After that experience bone grinding was postponed 
until after fox trapping closed for the season. 
From early in May until about September 15 foxes find abundant food on the cliffs 
and in the rocks where the birds nest thickly. The bird migration is practically over 
by September 15 and by that date the foxes seek food elsewhere. The beaches furnish 
a limited amount under ordinary conditions and at rare intervals a whale or sea lion 
is washed up, but such food supplies at that season can not be depended upon and in 
consequence preserved food must be supplied. Feeding at the trap began September 
15 ar was continued until May 8 anil least auklets (choochkies) and other birds 
appeared in sufficient numbers to provide a food supply more to their taste, when the 
foxes ceased to visit the village feeding ground. 
For more than 20 years food has been the one great and constant problem in fox 
propagation on this island. Previous to that time the large number of seals killed 
annually and left on the killing fields provided a supply ample to sustain a very large 
fox herd. As seal killings diminished, fox life decreased. In 1897 Assistant Agent 
James Judge began preserving seal carcasses in an abandoned silo. These carcasses 
were taken out, freshened, and fed during the winter. This experiment met with 
such success that it has been followed ever since. But fora number of years sufficient 
seal carcasses were not available and the food supply was to some extent added to by 
the purchase of salted salmon and other fish and on one occasion whale meat. 
During the summer of 1917 the viscera and other waste portions of seals were pre- 
served in the silo, and that together with a portion of the meat from the large number 
of seals killed during the late fall furnished the largest supply of food for a number of 
years and enabled the herd to secure an ample amount of nourishing food throughout 
the winter and spring. Asa result the females were strong and brought a larger per- 
centage of their young through the nursing period. 
Taking 7,000 seals during the sealing season of 1918, for the first time in many years, 
provided sufficient meat in excess of the natives’ requirements to enable us to preserve 
a large eupply forthefoxes. Early in thesummer it wasseen that the one silo would not 
suffice and work was at once begun on another. It was completed and filled before 
the close of the sealing season and about 300 carcasses from the last killings of the 
season had to be left on the killing field. Flesh decays slowly here and the carcasses 
on 1he killing field furnished ample food for the young and old after the birds began 
to leave. 
Following the plan begun in 1916, a pipe-line was laid on top of the ground early in 
October from the silos to the standpipe in the siphon line connecting the village with 
Upper Lake. Fresh water wasrun into the silos for four weeks and the small amount 
of salt sprinkled over the carcasses when they were placed in the silos was thoroughly 
washed away. The meatso preserved is remarkably firm, but is very high and seems 
to be relished by foxes. It is this meat that is being fed out nightly. While this 
partially putrid meat furnishes their principal food supply during the winter months, 
the foxes secure a varying amount from the beaches, and it is not unusual for them to 
entirely desert the village feeding ground when sea food becomes abundant along 
the beaches. 
_ Young foxes make their first appearance about the entrance of the warrens early 
in June, and this year it was seen that litters brought to that age were unusually large 
and well nourished. As fall came on the inexperienced young had ample food close 
at hand and they were seen feeding on the old killing field in large numbers, and by 
October the three hundred odd carcasses gave evidence of their activities. The fore- 
going applies particularly to the litters in and about the village, but visits to Zapadni, 
Staraya Artil, Garden Cove, and the vicinity of East Rookery showed that the young 
in those sections were in exceedingly fine condition and families were large. 
_ In September, 1918, a pair of young foxes was secured from Sagchudak Island, an 
islet near the southern shore of Atka Island of the Aleutian Group. They were secured 
in exchange for a as of young foxes from the St. George herd. The transfer was 
authorized by the Bureau in a telegram dated September 5, 1918, and the trade was 
made with Reverend Mr. Hotovitsky, of Unalaska, who, it is believed, is engaged in 
