vi FOREWORD 



and conserving the fur bearers. I am not talking of game hogs, 

 who shoot for the love of slaughter, or lust of killing. I am speak- 

 ing of the fur trade as it is operated to-day in the three greatest 

 fur preserves of the world — Alaska and the United States, Northern 

 Canada and Siberia. 



You have to go to the wilds and go only once to realize that 

 natural life is crueler by far than the most careless, thoughtless 

 fur hunter. 



In the first place, there is no such thing as a natural death in 

 the wilds. 



The rabbits fall victims to the weasel, to the wolf, to the bear, 

 to the lynx, to the marten ; and if they didn't they would and do 

 multiply with such terrific rapidity they would and do fall victims 

 to a pest of disease once in six or seven years. Otherwise, they 

 would do what they have done in Australia — become so prolific 

 they perish of starvation. 



Each creature in the animal world preys on the creature one de- 

 gree smaller or weaker than itself. That failing, they eat their 

 own young like rats, or disembowel their mates as the wolves and 

 minks do. 



There is next the consideration of the superfluous male. Some 

 animals like the fox mate for life and are monogamous ; but the 

 most of the fur bearers fight for a harem ; and in that fight, the 

 young are killed and torn, the mothers are injured, and the "bache- 

 lors" being the stronger, left in the majority to prey on one another. 

 Seal life is one of the most terrible examples of this. Bad as the 

 cruelties of the poachers were — which have been stopped in order 

 to conserve fur life — they never caused the loss of life among seals 

 that fights for the harem caused every spring in pup life and in- 

 juries to the mothers. The story of this will be found in the chap- 

 ter on seals. 



Now the fur trader's prosperity being dependent on the con- 

 tinuance of fur life, his buyer will buy only furs (i) taken prime, 

 that is, taken in the short season of two or three months, when the 



