102 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



come to the wholesale house — amounted to $24,000,000 a year. Asia 

 and Europe each pay about a similar amount. 



"In America a greater number of muskrat skins are obtained than 

 of any other fur-bearer, except the rabbit, several million skins going 

 to the market yearly. Of other American animals we might mention 

 the skunk, about one and a half million skins of which are sold yearly 

 the opossum, about a million; the mink, about six hundred thousand 

 the raccoon, six hundred thousand; otter, about'two hundred thousand 

 marten, one hundred and twenty thousand; lynx, ninety thousand 

 beaver, eighty thousand, and tisher, ten thousand." 



It can be estimated from figures given by Erne^t Thompson Seton 

 in his "Life Histories of Northern Animals" that the revenue to 

 North America for the last seventv-tive years, from the .sale of the 



Fig. 



A trapper's valuable catch of furs in the Sierras. This was the catch 

 at one location only. Photograph by Geo. Williamson, Jr. 



skins of the commoner fur-bearing mammals, has been $222,735,000, and 

 to the United States $113,950,000. This means that there has been an 

 average annual income to North America of about three million dollars 

 and to the United States of $1,500,000. The average annual fur pro- 

 duction of North America in recent years is estimated at $24,000,000. 

 The sale of skunk skins, alone, brings in an income to the trappers of 

 the United States of about $3,000,000 annually. 



According to a St. Louis fur importer, approximately twenty-five 

 million fur-bearing mammals were caught in North America last season. 

 These pelts had a cash value of about twenty million dollars. 



The total North American catch of la.st year (1914) has been approxi- 

 mated as follows: Maskrats, 15,000.000; 'opo-ssums, 2,800,000; raccoons, 

 2,400,000 ; .skunks, 2,152,000 ; minks, 630,000 ; civet cats, 500,000. Vari- 



