CHAPTER XXVI. 



DARK FURS. 



It is not perhaps generally known that the 

 surroundings of most animals have a primary 

 effect on the color of their hair. Beaver, otter, 

 mink and musquash are dark or light colored 

 according to the water they live in. Clear, cold 

 water lakes produce skins of a deep glossy 

 black, muddy lakes on the other hand, furnish- 

 ing light colored fur. 



Having studied this in my own hunting and 

 trapping, I have often surprised an Indian when 

 trading his skins by saying: "You trapped this 

 and this skin in a clear water lake," and he has 

 admitted it as true. Another peculiar fact in 

 relation to deep, cold water lakes is that, while 

 the skins they produce are of the finest quality, 

 they are also much smaller in size than those 

 trapped in brown or muddy water, and this ap- 

 plies to all the animals I have mentioned. 



Musquash killed in clear water lakes are 

 about two-thirds the size of those trapped in 

 grassy, sluggish rivers, and it is the same with 

 mink. This rule holds good also with land ani- 



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