14 FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 1912. 



facts the open season for foxes in the region drained by streams 

 leading to the Arctic Ocean has been extended to April 1. 



In the interior the Indians are reported as killing a few beaver, 

 primarily for food. The skins are used by the Indians themselves as 

 trimming for their garments. As a result of the visits of the wardens 

 to the beaver regions and the warnings given, the Indians are now 

 beUeved to be observing the regulation more fully. 



Many complaints have come to the w^ardens and to the Bureau 

 regarding the use of poison for killing fur-bearing animals, chiefly 

 foxes. The w^ardens were instructed to investigate carefully any 

 such- reports or rumors, and a number were investigated. In nearly 

 every case the report was found to be without any discoverable 

 basis of fact, and not in a single instance was it possible to justify 

 reporting the case. That poison is used is quite certain. The 

 offenders are invariably white men and the worst are probably those 

 that operate on the Alaska peninsulas and adjacent islands. 



In at least one instance a conviction could no doubt have been 

 secured if the available appropriation had permitted an expense of 

 about $100 to send a warden to the locality to secure the evidence. 

 Lack of funds has handicapped the service in many cases of this 

 kind. 



The wardens were active in pursuing offenders of all kinds, in 

 spite of the limit that had to be placed on their field expenses, and 

 several cases were reported to the United States marshals, resulting 

 in at least three convictions. One of these was at Andreafsld, 

 one at Chicken, and one at Kokwok. These are the first convictions 

 ever obtained in Alaska for violation of the fur law. 



IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY OF FURS SHIPPED. 



Although the fur-animal regulations have now been in force less 

 than three years, prominent fur dealers in Seattle, San Francisco, 

 Chicago, and New York state that there has been a marked irn- 

 provement in the quality of furs received from Alaska since the 

 fur-bearing animals of that Territory were placed under the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce. Some of the dealers say that the furs now 

 received from Alaska are as much as 30 per cent better in quality 

 than formerly. 



They attribute the improvement to the elimination of unprime 

 skins. Formerly a good many summer or out-of-season skins were 

 received. Nearly every shipment contained some skins that were 

 not prime — skins that had been taken either too early in the fall or 

 too late in the spring, or even in the summer. It is evident that 

 the trappers are beginning to realize that there is more money in a 

 prime than in an unprime skin ; that the animal whose fur is poor in 

 October wiU be in good condition a few weeks later and that it pays 



