198 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
where the strife of rival companies bid fair to destroy a vast resource 
when steps v/ere taken to limit the activities of each company to a given 
region. This act alone, aside from any laws controlling the catch, did 
much to stabilize the industry through permanent interest in production 
from a given region over a long period of time. The trappers deal- 
ing with the companies were encouraged to leave animals for breed- 
ing. Later, I believe, laws were enacted to enforce this very point. 
In many of the states where there are National Forests trapping 
beavers is prohibited, though provision is made to take such animals 
as destroy property. Little interest is taken in the protection of fur- 
bearing animals, with the result that applications to take beavers on 
the grounds of active damage are not investigated,, resulting in much 
taking of beavers without compliance wdth the laws for protection. 
Where there are closed seasons or where trapping fur can be carried 
on only under permit, no attempt has been made to ascertain the pro- 
ductive capacity of the region, with the result that, even with the 
closed seasons upon some of the more important animals, in many of 
the states, the fur resources of the United States have steadily dimin- 
ished during the last half century, far beyond any justification. 
Present conditions point beyond a doubt to further shrinkage. The 
decrease has been in the quantity of the better pelts and not in the total 
value of the catch. 
Beavers, otters, martens and fishers have disappeared from much 
of their former range, and even minks, raccoons, and skunks have 
become scarce in some localities. The result is that many kinds of 
thinner furs have come into the market, with an almost prohibitive 
price upon beaver fur. The following statement is taken from 
Chittenden’s History of the Fur Trade in the Far West: 
The great importance of the beaver in the life of the hunter and trapper arises 
almost entirely from the commercial value of its fur, which is one of the finest 
that nature produces. At this early. period in particular it was in great demand. 
An average price was four dollars per pound and as the little animal carried from 
one to two pounds on its body the premium for its destruction was from four to 
ten dollars according to the size and the prevailing price of furs. As the streams 
of the west — of the whole country for that matter — originally swarmed with these 
animals in numbers that rivaled the illimitable buffalo herds of the plains, it 
will be readily understood what a mine of wealth here lay open to the industry 
of the trader and the trapper. 
Every stream of the west was as rich as if sands of gold covered its bottom — a 
richness moreover, which if gathered with judgment and not -to the degree of 
extermination, would renew itself by natural increase. 
