262 THE STORY OP THE TRAPPER 



pronounced cross turn out to be red, or the red be 

 comes cross; and what they become at maturity, that 

 they remain, varying only with the seasons.* It takes 

 many centuries to make one perfect rose. Is it the 

 same with the silver fox? Is he a freak or a climax or 

 the regular product of yearly climatic changes caught 

 in the nick of time by some lucky trapper? Ask the 

 scientist that question, and he theorizes. Ask the 

 trapper, and he tells you if he could only catch enough 

 silver foxes to study that question, he would quit trap 

 ping. In all the maze of ignorance and speculation, 

 there is one anchored fact. While animals turn a 

 grizzled gray with age, the fine gray coats are not 

 caused by age. Young animals of the rarest furs fox 

 and ermine are born in ashy colour that turns to 

 gray while they are still in their first nest. 



To say that silver fox is costly solely because it is 

 rare is sheerest nonsense. It would be just as sensible 

 to say that labradorite, which is rare, should be as 

 costly as diamonds. It is the intrinsic beauty of the 

 fur, as of the diamonds, that constitutes its first value. 

 The facts that the taking of a silver fox is always pure 

 luck, that the luck comes seldom, that the trapper 

 must have travelled countless leagues by snow-shoe and 

 dog train over the white wastes of the North, that 

 trappers in polar regions are exposed to more dangers 

 and hardships than elsewhere and that the fur must 

 have been carried a long distance to market add to 

 the first high value of silver fox till it is not sur 

 prising that little pelts barely two feet long have 

 sold for prices ranging from $500 to $5,000. For the 



* That is, as far as trappers yet know. 



