FUR-FARMING IN CANADA 109 



" There were 480 silver fox skins sold at the March, 1910, 



Other 



Offerings auctions, which brought £540 as the highest and £9 as the 

 lowest price. In June 64 of these skins were offered, the 

 prices ranging from £230 down to £5, and at the October sales 167 

 skins brought prices from £150 to £36. 



" At the March Lampson sales, there were also offered 3,315 white 

 hare skins, prices for which ranged from 53/2d. to 4d. ; 1,311 Persian 

 lambskins, prices from 23s. to 3s. ; 307 sea-otter skins, prices £350 to 

 £4; 763 bales of Xorth American rabbit skins, prices 8d. to 3d. per 

 pound; 689 fur sealskins (dry), prices 13s. to 2s. 6d. ; 2,124 hair seal- 

 skins (dry), prices 6s. 9d. to Is.; 2,410 wombat skins, prices 2s. lid. 

 to 7d. ; and 928 wolverene skins, prices 46s. to 4s. At the June auctions 

 200 brown bearskins brought prices varying from 90s. to 9s., and 4,100 

 marmot skins from 3s. Id. to Is. 9d. 



" At the December seal auctions, 13,584 Alaska skins were offered 

 in 1910, against 14,350 in 1909, and brought from 240s. to 80s., which 

 was somewhat lower than in the earlier year. From the northwest 

 coast came 12,589 skins, against 13,972 in 1909, the prices averaging a 

 trifle higher in 1910 than in the preceding year and ranging from 168s. 

 to 35s. Prices were 10 per cent, lower for South Sea skins, the number 

 sold being 1,060 in 1910, compared with 2,086 in 1909, and the returns 

 being 182s. for the finest quality and 78s. for lower grades. Cape Horn 

 skins numbered only 213 in 1910, compared with 912 in 1909, but the 

 prices, 58s. to 38s., were 25 per cent, higher. 



" It will be realized that in the valuation of furs so much depends 

 on size, condition, colour, age, district, etc., that a mere list of prices 

 is no guide to the fluctuations of the auction-room value of the skins.'* 



Prices of Silver Fox Skins 



Emil Brass, a German commercial agent, who, for thirty- 

 Annual „ ' , -,.,,. . . , , 

 Production five years, has been engaged m collecting statistics of the 



fur trade, states that the average number of fox skins pro- 

 duced annually in the period from 1907 to 1909 was 2,042,300. The 

 following figures are based on his estimates: 



Common Rfd Fox fRod skins 1,515,000 



( Vulpes vulpes) \ Cross skins 18,000 



[Silver skins 4,.300 



Polar Fox /White skins 105,000 



{Vulpes lagopus) \Bluc " 11,000 



Kit-Fox \ 64,000 



( Vulpes velox) ] 



Gray Fox \ 50,000 



{Urocyon cinerensargentattis)) 



