164 
NATURE NOTES 
by some other route. No doubt the Postmaster-General, in 
accordance with the undertaking he gave to the recent deputa- 
tion, in which the Selborne Society took part, will do his best to 
spare this beautiful piece of country. 
FUR-BEARING ANIMALS AND THEIR POSSIBLE 
EXTINCTION. 
By Charles Maurice Muhlberg. 
gSWiN response to several enquiries made to the Selborne 
3 I Society, as to whether there are any fur-bearing 
^^1 animals in danger of becoming extinct through being 
" hunted for their skins, I am glad to be able to state 
that, according to my knowledge, based upon thirty years’ 
experience in the fur trade, none of these animals are in danger 
of extinction at the present moment. 
Speaking generally, the number of nearly all the large 
animals usually hunted as game by sportsmen, such as the 
Buffalo, Musk Ox, Bear, Lion, Otter and Beaver, appears to be 
decreasing. The Lynx and the Leopard may perhaps be 
exceptions. 
For the protection of the Buffalo, the Government of the 
United States has made special laws, and Canada has done the 
same for the Beaver. In the province of Ontario the killing 
of the latter is prohibited altogether. 
Fur Seals have been diminishing in number for the last 
twenty years. For the protection of these, ten years ago, the 
United States enacted laws, still in force to-day, which entirely 
prohibit the entry into United States territory of any skins of 
Seals killed at sea, in the Behring Sea or North Pacific. Into 
the United States there may, therefore, be imported only the 
skins of Seals killed on land on the Prybilow Islands, the 
Lobos Islands, the Copper or Commander Islands, and the 
few that are obtained off Cape Horn and Australia. A further 
diminution can only be averted by an international agreement 
among the nations concerned, and although these are many- - 
Russia, the United States, England, Japan, and others — I still 
hope that one day this agreement will come about. 
The Chinchilla has had the attention of the South .Vmerican 
Government turned to it of late. The killing of the Opossum 
was prohibited by Tasmania a few years ago. 
The Sea Otter, the most beautiful representative of its tribe, 
unfortunately has not shared the protection of the Fur Seal. 
The hunting of this animal, so highly prized for the great value 
of its skin, has been carried on indiscriminately, with the result 
that in 1904 less than 400 skins reached the London market, 
whereas only seven years ago (1897) i>20o were imported, 
and much larger ciuantities in the year before that. 
