2 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



It is a page of romance unequalled in all history. 



The canoe brigade pushing North to new hunting grounds 

 shunned followers and poachers in their preserve more than a 

 diplomat shuns a modern newspaper reporter. If the fur hunters 

 found fine new fields, where beaver and otter and silver fox and 

 fisher and muskrat and marten and sable were plentiful, they were 

 not going to tell it to rival traders, not they. They were not going 

 to be followed by rivals ; and when they came out, either down to 

 St. Louis, or down to Montreal, or over the mountains down the 

 Columbia, they were not going to tell they had made a new find 

 of a fine hunting ground, that would attract other hunters the next 

 year. They even concealed the number of their packs and shipped 

 them out by different ports so the world would not know what 

 was coming from where. 



Just as elusive and secretive were the individual trappers out 

 on the ground going the rounds of their traps. If they came on 

 beaver and otter and mink and fisher signs, do you think they were 

 going to advertise the fact to brother trappers ? Not they ! Ask 

 them about the hunt ; and they would answer invariably, then as 

 now — "Poor, very poor, getting scarcer every year." 



The very same elusiveness marked the latest development of 

 fur trading in fur farming. Fur farming really began back in the 

 1880's, in Prince Edward Island ; but it was less than ten years ago 

 that the facts came out to the world. The first farmer of silver 

 foxes had been expressing and posting skins from half a dozen post 

 offices before his nearest neighbors knew he was succeeding; and 

 by the time his bank deposits in a dozen different banks had totalled 

 $225,000 he was selling breeding stock for other silver fox farms 

 up to $10,000 and $30,000 a pair. In the twinkling of an eye 

 $26,000,000 was invested in silver fox farming in Prince Edward 

 Island. Wild bush lands had jumped to higher values than farm 

 lands ; and the thing became a mania like oil, or gold. Then came 

 the War ; and prices slumped. Pelts would not sell at all in London ; 

 and breeding stock dropped to $100 and $200 and $400 a pair. The 



