MAMMALIA 213 



Canada may, perhaps, be said to owe her start, commercially, to 

 the fur trade. In the early days there was almost no limit to the profits 

 of the fur business, since the Indians from whom they were chiefly 

 obtained, did not appreciate the value of the skins they sold, and the 

 early traders, "coureurs des bois, " became a most unscrupulous and 

 disreputable class of men. In 1670 the Hudson Bay Company was 

 chartered, with extensive and exclusive privileges, and the sign of 

 this company is still a familiar sight along the Canadian Pacific Railroad, 

 though it is, of course, not merely a firm for handling furs. Since the 

 fur-bearing animals are apt to be inhabitants of colder regions, many, 

 if not the majority, of them are captured in Canada and the Northern 

 States of the Union, though there are some valuable forms taken in 

 the Southern States. 



The American furs are usually superior to the European and millions 

 of dollars worth are exported each year, while large numbers are im- 

 ported into the United States. 



"In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, the foreign trade of the United 

 States in raw and manufactured furs reached nearly, if not fully, the high 

 level of the years preceding the war. The imports were valued at $21,553,375, 

 while the exports amounted to $15,729,160, a sum exceeded in only one 

 previous year, 1913, when they were $18,389,586" (176). 



While it is difficult to obtain accurate figures on the number of skins 

 handled each year, the following quotation from a personal letter from Mr. 

 E. W. Nelson, Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey, will give an idea of 

 the number and value of some American forms: 



"Funsten Bros, of St. Louis, Mo., offered at their three auction sales 

 during 1917, 5,345,000 American skins. At the March and October auction 

 sales of the New York Fur Auction Sales Corporation, 2,152,900 American 

 skins were offered. Whether these skins, nearly 8,000,000, were all taken in 

 1917 is not known. Probably they were not, but a large proportion of 

 American skins do not pass through these two channels. At Funsten's 

 three 1917 sales there were offered 3,110,000 muskrat skins which brought 

 from $0.06 to $0.91 each; 586,000 opossum skins, which brought from $0.0 1 

 to $1.1 8 each; 446,000 skunk skins which brought from $0.10 to $4.35; 

 314,000 raccoon skins, which brought from $0.35 to $7.00 each; 186,000 

 ermine skins, which brought from $0.10 to $2.75 each; 155,000 mink skins, 

 which brought from $0.20 to $11.50; 42,000 lynx skins which brought from 

 $1.00 to $26.50 each; 37,955 beaver skins, which brought from $1.25 to 

 $15.25 each; and 33,050 red fox skins, which brought from $1.75 to $33.50 

 each." 



