stance, in future trapping we might spare the darker 

 individuals and gradually increase the proportion of 

 high-grade animals. Moreover, this work in Itasca 

 Park suggests that it would be feasible to extend our 

 plan to the territory outside of the park, particularly 

 to the great districts in Northern and Northeastern 

 Minnesota where beaver are now fairly numerous. To 

 my mind it would be a calamity to open a season for 

 indiscriminate beaver 1 rapping. To do so would be to 

 wipe out in one month the' results of twenty years of 

 protection and isolation. The average trapper does not 

 know much about the life of a beaver family. There 

 is all too much evidence to show that he would kill 

 several beaver for every one he got, because he would 

 trap at the wrong time and in the wrong way. To open 

 a beaver house or to cut a beaver dam in winter or late 

 fall is to endanger the whole colony, because it is pretty 

 likely to shut the animals off from their food supply. 

 When beaver have become sufficiently plentiful in 

 large districts of the state, why not have trapping done 

 under regulation by authorized trappers, who will catch 

 only a certain number of male beaver in each locality? 

 This is a perfectly feasible proposition, and in view of 

 the possible value of the beaver crop it is well worth 

 considering. 



29 



