114 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 
A discount of 24 per cent. off these prices is given and the selling 
commission of 6 per cent. and the carriage and insurance charges bring 
the total cost of marketing furs in London up to about 9 per cent. of 
the selling price. 
Statistics for 1908 and 1909 are wholly lacking, the records being 
reported lost. Satisfactory proof was furnished that the following sales 
were made, although possibly not more than one-half the total quantity 
of skins sold in the period 1905-1912 are represented: 
SALES OF P. E. I. SILVER FOX SKINS, 1905-1912 
Year No. of Skins Total Value Average Value 
1905 11 | $ 5,937.33 $ 539.76 
1906 8 9,733.33 1,216.67 
1907 28 22,892.80 817.60 
1910 27 36,748 .20 1,361.05 
1911 10 10,852.67 1,085.27 
1912 1 1,995.33 1,995.33 
Total 85 $88 , 159.66 
The average for the last seven years would probably be slightly 
lower if reports of all sales were available. On the other hand, the price 
has advanced since 1905, most noticeably so in 1910 and in 1912. 
On account of the demand for breeding animals, but few skins have 
been sold since 1910. 
No ranches other than those on Prince Edward Island have fur- 
nished proof of the prices obtained for skins produced by them. T. L. 
Burrowman of Wyoming, Ont., offered no documentary proof of his 
sales. The highest price he claimed to have received for a silver fox 
skin was $1,050 and he admitted that the skin came from the vicinity 
of Labrador and hence belonged to the sub-species V. bangsi. Mr. 
Johan Beetz, of the North shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sold 
his breeders at a much lower price than the Prince Edward Island 
ranchers. Messrs. Holt, Renfrew & Co., of Quebec, are holding all 
their best stock and selling only some inferior specimens to brokers or 
traders. They have made no test of the business as a fur-raising propo- 
sition and have not invested capital as freely as such intelligent and 
enterprising furriers would be expected to do if they thought they could 
rear the silver fox profitably. The other experiments in Alaska, Yukon 
and elsewhere are too recent to produce results. 
