A fact not generally known is that the United 

 States Government realizes millions of dollars annual- 

 ly from its fur industry. The sealskins taken on the 

 Pribilof Islands by the Bureau of Fisheries in 1919, 

 to the number of 27,82-1, were worth nearly $4,000,000. 

 Prom these islands the same year the Government 

 harvested 938 blue foxes, with pelts worth $165,000. 

 The skins of bears, bob cats, coyotes, mountain lions, 

 and timber wolves killed by predatory animal hunters 

 of the Biological Survey in 1918 and 1919 brought 

 nearly $160,000. 



Foresees Greater Demand 



In the resultant stimulation of the fur- garment 

 trade the department foresees an intensified pressure 

 on fur-bearing animals, which have been rapidly de- 

 n-casing in number as a result of excessive trapping, 

 clearing of forests, and draining of marshes. Already 

 beavers and martens have been exterminated over a 

 large part of the country. Even in Alaska trappers 

 have had a close season for several years, declared 

 for the protection of beavers. 



Reports from raw fur buyers indicate that fur- 

 bearing animals have decreased approximately 50 per 

 cent during the last decade. A raw fur buyer in 

 Boston declared that the muskrat supply of 1918-1919 

 was 50 per cent short of normal, and the following 

 winter had decreased another 50 per cent. In 1917, 

 Wisconsin trappers took 800,000 muskrats; in 1918, 

 less than 300,000; and in 1919, only 150,000. 



The department urges stringent uniform state laws 

 and close seasons over periods of years for the pro- 

 tection of species, but it believes that still further 



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