MINOR FUR INDUSTRIES. 113 



Bait is sometimes used. The entrails of a bird or other animal 

 make better bait than the whole- animal, and fish oil or decayed 

 fish is still better. A live bird is excellent; rarely will the mink 

 pass without stopping to kill the bird. 



Mink houses are often built as a protection to the trap and to lead 

 the mink to the trap. The house is built of small pieces of wood 

 or stone, the bait is put at the farther end and the trap in the entrance. 

 This is regarded as a very good method. It protects the trap from 

 freezing, but takes too much time if one has a long line of traps. 

 Every trapper, however, has his own favorite method as the only 

 really good one, and the methods are therefore nearly as numerous as 

 the trappers themselves. Deadfalls are sometimes used in trapping 

 mink but this method is not now much practiced. Steel traps, 

 no. 1 and 1^, are now most used, even by Indians. The Indian 

 uses but few traps, while the white man will have 100 to 200. 



Albinism among mink is not uncommon; at least three examples 

 have been noted recently. All were unusually large animals, one 

 being 25 inches long when cased. The fur of these albinos was pure 

 white, but the guard hairs were creamy white, thus marring some- 

 what the beauty of the skin. 



Mink are said to prey on muskrats at times, and the entrails of 

 muskrats are often used as bait. The principal food of the mink is 

 probably fish, though the menu is by no means so limited. In one 

 instance a quantity of grass and weeds and the remains of a squirrel 

 were found in a mink's stomach. 



Less than 10 years ago mink skins could be purchased in Alaska for 

 one to two dollars. The average price now paid for the interior 

 mink is $4.50 to $5.50, while many lots bring as much as $7 per skin. 

 One lot of 107 skins taken in the Kantishna region by one trapper 

 brought him $725. 



There are, of course, not nearly as many mink in Alaska as formerly, 

 but the high price which their pelts bring causes them to be hunted 

 assiduously and a large annual catch is maintained. 



MARTEN (tENA INDIAN NAME, ''sUKA"). 



The marten is one of the most valuable of the fur-bearing animals 

 of Alaska. It is an animal of the forest and is rarely seen where 

 there are no trees. Of the regions covered by our investigations, 

 the most important having marten are the Porcupine and Chandlar 

 territory, the Kantishna, and the headwaters of the Kuskokwim. 



The fur from the different regions has distinctive peculiarities. 

 An expert can usually tell the locality from which any particular 

 bunch of skins came. Those from the Porcupine country have 

 very thick long fur, somewhat coarser than from farther south. 



