218 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 397. 



providing food for the female. But the 

 rea.son why there is apparently not the 

 least increase in the number of females re- 

 mains to be shown. 



A different problem seems to be pre- 

 sented by the conditions found on St. Paul, 

 thirty miles distant from St. George. 



On St. Paul efforts were made by Mr. 

 Judge last winter to localize the foxes by 

 exposing seal carcasses as food in the stable 

 at Northeast Point and at the watch-house 

 at Half-way Point. His efforts, however, 

 were not successful in bringing together 

 foxes in any number sufficient to justify 

 the adoption of the trapping methods used 

 on St. George. The old method of trap- 

 ping with steel traps, therefore, was re- 

 sorted to, the killing being restricted to 

 about two weeks' actual trapping. This 

 catch amounted to 153 blues and 1 white. 



The trapping on St. Paul disclosed the 

 presence of about a dozen pelts of very in- 

 ferior quality. Nearly all of these skins 

 were taken on the reef adjacent to the vil- 

 lage. This ground has always rendered 

 a poor grade of skins, but this year the be- 

 llief is that those skins are poorer than 

 »ever before. 



.Sf© far no means have been arrived at 

 TvMxih will assure the perpetuation of the 

 ^species on St. Paul Island. In former 

 years it was the practice to take foxes only 

 lon alternate years on St. Paul Island, the 

 intervening year being closed to trapping. 

 'The numbers still decreasing, it was 

 ithauglit wise during the last two seasons 

 to trap during a limited time each season, 

 ■proceeding on the theory that, owing to the 

 fewer number of seals taken, the food sup- 

 ply on the island was insufficient to provide 

 :for a larger number of foxes, and that it 

 ^was better to trap the surplus than to 

 .■allow it to die of starvation. 



'The iood supply on the island last win- 

 ter, howpsv^er, was more than was necessary 



to support the fox herd, owing to the large 

 number of dead arries cast up on its 

 shores. The carcasses of these birds. Agent 

 Judge states, were found in numbers un- 

 eaten the following spring. This unusual 

 food supply undoubtedly served to defeat 

 the efforts made to localize the foxes by 

 artificial feeding, and to trap them in 

 house traps. It may be, if these efforts 

 are continued the winter of 1901-02, that 

 better results will follow, but, unless some 

 improved method of fox trapping or fox 

 culture is devised for St. Paul, the prac- 

 tical extermination of the species on that 

 island is threatened. 



Walter I. Lembkey, 

 F. A. Lucas. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 RECENT BOOKS ON HYGIENE. 



Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public 

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 1st edition. New York, The Macmillan 

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Water Sttpplij (considered principally from a 

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Bacteriological Examination of Water. By 

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Municipal Engineering and Sanitation. By M. 

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 The Citizen's Library. 12mo. Pp. 318. 

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Sewage and the Bacterial Purification of Sew- 

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 Whatever Professor Sedgwick may write 



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