208 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



of the Province with the result that not only are quantities of the little 

 animals left without food and shelter to perish without profit to mankind, 

 but in many instances whole families are wiped out to the detriment 

 of natural reproduction. It would seem, indeed, that the present open 

 season is altogether too long, and occurring as it does just when the 

 greatest harm can be done, is productive of an undue and economically 

 wasteful slaughter. It has been noted that the skin is primest towards 

 spring and that the value of the trade in this fur is steadily increasing. 

 The creature itself will thrive in ponds, marshes, canals and streams, 

 surrounded more or less by civilization and from which other fur-bear- 

 ing creatures will have largely disappeared. It is apparent, therefore, 

 that w^ith an eye alike to the present as to the future the utmost precau- 

 tions should be taken to insure the perpetuation of an abundant supply 

 of this valuable animal. There can be little doubt but that vigorous 

 and systematic trapping over a far shorter period than that now allowed 

 by law would be sufficient to produce all the rats that should be taken, 

 having regard to the maintenance of the supply, and it would seemj 

 therefore, not onlj^ that the season should, in the interests of the trappers 

 themselves, be considerably curtailed, but that it should occur at that 

 season of the year Avhen skins are primest and the least irreparable 

 damage is likely to occur. So long, indeed, as trapping muskrats is 

 permitted throughout the winter months, so long will it be exceedingly 

 difficult to enforce the regulations in regard to the breaking open of the 

 houses, while if trapping is prohibited during the major portion of the 

 winter there will be no excuse, or at least very little, for the hunter to 

 be visiting the grounds with his traps. Consequently it ^^uld appear 

 that the open season for muskrats could, without undue hardship to the 

 trappers, without materially diminishing the anniual catchy and at the 

 same time in the best interests of economical conservation, be fixed 

 from March 16 to April 30, both days inclusive. 



One objection thiat would in all probability be made to the suggested 

 alteration in the dates of the open season for muskrats is that the mink is 

 often to be caught in approximately the same localities. Undoubtedly this 

 is the case. The mink, whose beautiful fur causes it to be mucli more 

 highly esteemed than the muskrat, is widely distributed throughout 

 Ontario, but it is to be observed that in the more densely populated sec- 

 tions of the Province, in those areas, in fact, where the muskrat will be 

 the most vigorously and persistently hunted, and where in consequence 

 the gTeatest danger of extermination will occur, the mink has become 

 compara/tively scarce. Trapping operations, therefore, for mink in such 

 localities would not in all probability be very extensive even were the 

 present open season for mink, December 1 to May 1, left unaltered, for 

 to trap for this creature alone would not be a very profitable undertak- 

 ing and it is more than probable that a few instances of rigorous punish- 

 ment in regard to the illegal taking of muskrats under such circum- 

 stances would result more or less in the ahandonmentt of such operations 



