64 INCREASING QUANTITIES. 



the exception of a few hundred thousand skins 

 from China and a small number from Japan, all the 

 Asiatic Squirrels come from Siberia. Six million of the 

 squirrel skins credited to Europe come from Kasan and 

 other Russian provinces. 



INCREASING QUANTITIES. 



In 1875, P. L. Simmonds said: "It must be remembered 

 that fur bearing animals like human beings and cattle 

 are liable to periodical failures of food, or periodical inroads 

 of disease. Experience shows that their abundance runs in 

 cycles. The failure one year of an insignificant class of 

 animals may cause the decrease the next year of a far 

 more valuable beast which feeds on the former. The whole 

 chain of animal life is more or less linked together, and 

 the different species as they depend on each other fall off 

 or increase again, according as the supply of food and the 

 vigor of each class may be more or less abundant. 



' ' In spite of the fact that some species have been extermin- 

 ated and others decimated by indiscriminate and wanton 

 slaughter, on the whole the quantity of skins of wild 

 animals seems to be increasing yearly. We drive animals 

 back at some points, but for the last two centuries the grand 

 total of skins collected annually has been steadily increas- 

 ing; and it does not seem as if the globe was sufficiently 

 peopled yet for man to arrest the production of animal 

 life. In fact, agriculture increases the production of some 

 fur bearing animals by augmenting their food supplies; 

 and the changes in fashion give the species that is threat- 

 ened with extermination one year, an opportunity to 

 recover lost ground in the next while a new favorite is 

 being hunted. ' ' 



Some people may be disposed to question the truth of 

 the statement that upwards of a hundred million fur pro- 

 ducing animals are killed every year, but a careful con- 

 sideration of the statistics available shows that the actual 

 total for the past few years has far exceeded that figure ; 



