228 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
tax upon the ability of the animal to maintain itself. Ermine {Pu~ 
torius arcticus) has been worn from time immemorial and has been the 
fur of royalty, and no less than 4,400,000 of these little animals have 
come to market over the three-year period. Before the recent craze in 
furs had begun, the skunk (Mephitis) enjoyed the immunity which na- 
ture intended him to have, and his skin brought such a low figure at 
the auctions that it scarcely paid to run the risk of removing it. Now 
skunk fur commands such a high price that the trappers refuse to be 
balked of their prey and over six million skunk were disposed of at 
the auctions from 1919 to 1921. When the killing of the Alaskan fur 
seal (Callorhinus alascanus) had reached such serious proportions that 
the government found it necessary to take a hand, and treaties had 
established the right of this country to protect the fur seal, the north- 
ern herds were placed upon a basis of protection and the annual killing 
controlled by law. This has been found to work out most satis- 
factorily, and a glance at the figures shovv^s that over the three-year 
period more than eighty-five thousand skins were sold^ — a very 
satisfactory total when one considers the high prices per individual skin. 
The average man may be led to suppose that wolves have become 
almost extinct over most of the country. In the figures given for the 
wolf (Canis), there are lumped together a great many species of coyotes 
and wolves, but, even so, the very large total of over one million skins 
is very significant of the great campaign that is being carried on against 
this animal, and at this rate it will not be very long before the wolf 
is extinct indeed. The red fox (Vulpes fulvus) has been such a prime 
favorite that great numbers of his skin have come to the fur sales, and 
we understand that in some regions of the north the fox is virtually 
on the brink of extermination. Over one million two hundred thousand 
skins taken during the three-year period point out a rate of destruc- 
tion far greater than a species like the fox can survive. On the other 
hand, the rarer foxes, the silver and the black, have been protected 
and reared in captivity, and we have learned upon good authority that 
most of the skins sold at the sales are those of ranch reared animals. 
When upwards of twenty-six thousand ranch reared skins can be sold 
in three years, this furnishes a significant point for the consideration 
of the proper methods for supplying the fur market. 
The raccoon (Procyon) is another animal which had but little fur 
value in early years; but to show how his status has changed, it will 
only be necessary to point out a total of 1,700,000 skins for the three- 
year period. The sea otter (Latax luiris), the most beautiful of all 
