316 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



like all Arctic creatures, he has the soles of his feet heavily furred. 

 All this is plain and simple classification. But how about Mr. Blue 

 Fox of the same size and habit as the white Arctic ? Is he the Arctic 

 fox in summer clothing ? Yes, say some trappers ; and they show 

 their pelts of an Arctic fox taken in summer of a rusty white. But 

 no, vow other trappers — that is impossible, for here are blue fox- 

 skins captured in the depths of midwinter with not a white hair 

 among them. Look closely at the skins. The ears of one blue 

 fox are long, perfect, unbitten by frost or foe — he was a young 

 fellow ; and he is blue. Here is another with ears almost worn to 

 stubs by fights and many winters' frosts — he is an old fellow; and 

 he, too, is blue. Well, then, the blue fox may sometimes be the 

 white Arctic fox in summer dress ; but the blue fox who is blue all 

 the year round, varying only in the shades of blue with the seasons, 

 is certainly not the white Arctic fox. 



The same difficulty besets distinction of silver fox from black. 

 The old scientists classified these as one and the same creature. 

 Trappers know better. So do the later scientists who almost agree 

 with the unlearned trapper's verdict — there are as many species 

 as there are foxes. Black fox is at its best in midwinter, deep, 

 brilliantly glossy, soft as floss, and yet almost impenetrable — the 

 very type of perfection of its kind. But with the coming of the 

 tardy Arctic spring comes a change. The snows are barely melted 

 in May when the sheen leaves the fur. By June, the black hairs 

 are streaked with gray ; and the black fox is a gray fox. Is it at 

 some period of the transition that the black fox becomes a silver 

 fox, with the gray hairs as sheeny as the black and each gray hair 

 delicately tipped with black ? That question, too, remains un- 

 answered ; for certainly the black fox trapped when in his gray 

 summer coat is not the splendid silver fox of priceless value. Black 

 fox turning to a dull gray of midsummer may not be silver fox ; but 

 what about gray fox turning to the beautiful glossy black of mid- 

 winter ? Is that what makes silver fox ? Is silver fox simply a 

 fine specimen of black caught at the very period when he is blooming 



