ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUE INDUSTRIES, 1911. 25 



The possibility of determining by an examination of the skin 

 whether the animal from which it was taken was killed by poison 

 is a mooted question. Some dealers in furs claim that the eflfects of 

 the poison will show in the skin or fur, but no convincing evidence 

 has been presented. Doubtless many of the skins from poisoned 

 animals are inferior, but the cause probably lies in the fact that the 

 animals were not discovered and skinned until considerable time 

 after they died and decomposition had begun. A series of investiga- 

 tions for the purpose of determining the physiological and chemical 

 effects on the skin of poison administered to fur-bearing animals 

 would no doubt answer this question and should be undertaken. 



As the scarcity of fur in the regions hitherto producing the supply 

 grows more marked, attention is turned to the possibility of making 

 up for this falling off by the propagation of the more readily domesti- 

 cated fur bearers. Heretofore the price of the raw pelt has been so 

 small that propagation and feeding has not been profitable except 

 under the most favorable circumstances. An even greater drawback 

 has been the fact that, by the methods pursued, the product secured 

 was less valuable than the pelts of wild animals. At present the 

 most promising branch of fur culture seems to be the rearing of black 

 foxes. The price of these pelts is so high that with a limited output 

 there is still a good profit, and fox farming in Alaska was at one 

 time promoted as a sure source of fortune. The general plan followed 

 was to lease or take possession of some small island, place a few pairs 

 of foxes thereon, usually the blue fox, and let them run at large. 

 The only assistance given by the "farmer" was to supply a scanty 

 diet of fish and put up some shelters. Experience did not confirm 

 the expectations of large returns to be thus obtained, and there are 

 now few fox farms operated. The breeding of foxes on the seal islands 

 is among the more successful efforts. 



UNUSUAL MORTALITY AMONG FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 



The periodic occurrence of a plague or disease of some sort causing 

 great mortality among the rabbits or hares of Alaska is a matter of 

 much importance to the fur industry. The hare is an important, if 

 not essential, element of food to certain of the fur animals. There 

 is a general beUef that at intervals of about seven years the hares 

 are almost wiped out by the spread of some disease, with the result 

 that those animals dependent upon them for food either starve or 

 migrate. For a number of years succeeding this climax there is 

 again a gradual upbuilding of the number of hares until the normal 

 is reached, to be followed soon by a recurrence of the destruction. 

 With this scarcity of natural food results an increased destruction 

 of each other among the fur animals themselves, decrease in repro- 

 duction, and a temporary fur famine in the locality. With the 



