﻿BLUE-FOX FARMING IN" ALASKA 5 



silver foxes (1895-96), they placed on the island 30 pairs of blue 

 foxes from Aghiyuk. Whale Island was stocked in 1899 with foxes 

 produced on Long Island. 



This stocking of islands was the real beginning of blue-fox farm- 

 ing in Alaska. The operations of the Semidi Propagating Co. were 

 not a complete success, but were a start in the right direction. 

 Through its efforts stock w^as brought to points accessible to breeders. 

 It is neither necessary nor desirable to go into a detailed history of 

 subsequent developments. In fact, this soon became so intricate as 

 to make impracticable any attempt to trace it. For a time there was 

 a boom; then there was a decline, during which many islands were 

 abandoned and most or all of the stock of foxes removed. Interest 

 revived about 1916, and since then the industry has developed so 

 rapidly that in a very few years almost all the islands suitable for 

 the enterprise have been occupied. 



Fig. 4. 



-Blue foxes running wild on islands comb the beach for food. They will 

 become very tame and even eat from the hand of their keeper 



In 1898 a few pairs of blue foxes from Long Island were sent to 

 Foxcroft, Me., and kept in pens. The animals were pups of that 

 season and it is reported that several foxes were raised the next 

 year.* A number of blue foxes were imported into the LTnited 

 States from Alaska between the years 1919 and 1924. Some, at 

 least, of the operators in the States and on the Alaska mainland 

 have been successful in raising bhie foxes in pens. 



FOX-GROWING AREAS IN ALASKA 



The islands used for blue-fox farming in Alaska vary in size from 

 about 40 to more than 0,000 acres, and fall into six geographic 

 groups (see fig. 1) : (1) Southeastern Alaska (in the Alexander 

 Archipelago); (2) Prince William Sound region; (3) Lower Cook 

 Inlet region; (4) Kodiak-Afognak region; (5) the Alaska Penin- 

 sula; (0) the Aleutian Islands. In the first two groups the islands 



* Washburn, M. L., in Haniman Ala.ska Kxix.tlltion, vol. 2, p. 3(50, 1901. 



