62 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



produce considerable revenue directly from trapping operations, in 

 addition to the general taxes upon the furriers' and dealers' plants, 

 stocks and business. As examples, fur royalties paid to the government 

 in various Canadian provinces in 1926 amounted to $439,542.47, while 

 in Louisiana in the season of 1926-1927 the following amounts were 

 received by the state: From trappers' license fees, $25,946; dealers' 

 licenses, $11,940; tax on pelts taken, $34,042; total, $7i,928. 15 In Can- 

 ada, about ten or twelve years ago, it was proposed that the Dominion 

 Government "take over the entire control and exploitation of the fur 

 trade and wild life resources of the Northwest Territories," establish 

 trading posts, purchase the rights of the Hudson Bay Company, etc., 

 for the better protection of useful animal life. 16 



The falling off in the catch of some species is significant. For ex- 

 ample, the muskrat is one of the most important of our fur-bearers, and 

 better able to hold its own than are many other species, but it has been 

 so intensively trapped in some areas since prices reached their recent 

 height that its numbers have been greatly reduced. One Boston dealer 

 declared that in the seasons of 1918-1919 and 1919-1920, when prices 

 were at their peak, there was a drop of 50 per cent in the catch each 

 season, while in Wisconsin 800,000 were taken in 1917, 300,000 in 

 1918, and only 150,000 in 1919, though each year there was a 10 per 

 cent increase in the number of trapping licenses issued. 17 In the season 

 1925-1926 the catch of furs in the United States was 20 per cent less 

 than in 1924-1925, the decrease in the season of 1926-1927 being even 

 greater, 18 perhaps mostly because of the pernicious practice of catching 

 out of season. 



An increase or decrease in the total value of the annual catch of furs 

 does not necessarily mean a corresponding increase or decrease in the 

 number of skins obtained. A fair understanding of some of the sta- 

 tistics herein set forth, as well as of the much more detailed figures 

 given in various publications cited in the footnotes, requires strict at- 

 tention to the fact that there has been an enormous increase in the 

 prices of the individual furs during the last two decades. This general 

 advance is quite independent of the fluctuations from year to year in 

 the value of particular kinds of furs, due to changing fashions. The 

 general advance is due largely, though not entirely, to the greatly in- 



15 Arthur, The fur animals of Louisiana, Louisiana Dept. Conserv. Bull. No. 18, 

 p. 422, 1928. 



16 Hewitt, The conservation of the wild life of Canada, p. 260, 1921. 



^ Dearborn, Maintenance of the fur supply, U. S. Biol. Surv. Circular No. 135, 

 1920. 



18 American Forests and Forest Life, xxxiv, 124, 1928. 



