INTUODIU'TION. XIX 



30 or 40 per cent, was considered sufficient a few years 

 ago. Any fashion, if constantly kept up, would probably 

 lead to the extinction of many species, but its frequent 

 changes give the animals time to increase. The Hudson's 

 Bay Company have a good plan of passing over for a 

 time any district that is exhausted. The furs of a 

 country are, as a rule, only used to a minor extent there, 

 a great number being exported, and, on the other hand, 

 many foreign ones are imported, the want of one country 

 being supplied by the abundance of anotlior, thus 

 stimulating and promoting commerce. 



Qttantities. 



The immense number of fur skins imported will perhaps 

 astonish many readers, and the more so, as the importa- 

 tion of the skins of many animals is increasing every 

 year. Some quantities, how^ever, are stationary ; and 

 others are on the decrease. Certain wild animals, 

 especially those of large size, are steadily decreasing ; 

 but, on the other hand, many animals^ such as the 

 Eacoon, American and Australian Opossum, increase 

 with the settlement of the country, feeding in the culti- 

 vated fields, and thus procuring food more readily than 

 when the land was unreclaimed. 



The prolific nature of the Babbit was well known in 

 former times, and its enormous increase in Australia in 

 a few years, a decade at most, does not cause the same 

 astonishment ; it is, moreover, a matter of history that the 

 Eabbit almost devastated a small island in ancient times. 



Another cause for the increase in the quantities 

 captured is the facility of transit by means of railways 

 and steamers. 



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