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 was 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 
become very tame and even eat from the hand of their keeper 
will 
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. 4 A number of blue foxes were imported into the I T nited 
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 blue foxes in pens. 
FOX-GROWING AREAS IN ALASKA 
The islands used for blue- fox farming in Alaska vary in size from 
about 4-0 to more than 6,000 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; (6) the Aleutian Islands. In the first two groups the islands 
4 Washburn, M. L., in Harriman Alaska Expedition, vol. 2, p. 360, 1901. 
