June 19, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
975 
At the table were all the white employes of 
the company, and that meal I would not for 
the world have missed. First there was Dem- 
ing, tall and broad-shouldered, with clear blue 
eyes and square chin. With his quietly confi¬ 
dent manner and well modulated voice, the rough 
I clothes and unshaven cheek could not hide the 
well bred gentleman. Then Murphy, a plain 
little Irishman, about five feet six, all muscle 
and energy, the kind that never goes around but 
always straight through. Here was the crack 
boss, ready to tackle any job or rule any gang. 
It would be difficult to imagine a subordinate so 
slothful as not to be infected by his “do or die” 
spirit, or so hardy as to be unruly. But at table, 
although he might perhaps have drawn a sharper 
line between the uses of knife and fork, he was 
as gentle as the gentlest. Robinson sat next. 
His lined face proclaimed him the oldest man 
there. He said little, but his broad forehead and 
calm dark eyes spoke volumes, and I have no 
doubt it would well repay one to break through 
his reserve. I was engaged in studying Bell, the 
tall quiet man at the head of the table, when 
there was a loud “Hello, boys,” and in burst a 
thick set, red-bearded man who was introduced 
as Mr. King. 
“Out with you!” he bellowed good naturedly 
to Mr. Poindexter; “we don’t want any land¬ 
lords here!” 
“Oh,” laughed Poindexter, “I am no landlord 
now; I’m just a plain hunter.” 
“Hunter ?” came from the crimson depths. 
“Come with me, I’ll get you some game.” And 
so the bantering continued. 
But, serious or frivolous, here were five real 
men compared with whom the average met in 
so-called polite society is a cheap travesty. 
In the early morning we set sail and made 
camp at the first point we had touched on our 
way south. While Poindexter hunted snipe I 
occupied the blind and had unusually good duck 
shooting. Had I been keener for the sport there 
would have been more ducks, but consider 
Mexico is the typical land of dreams, and game 
hoggishness lurks not in the atmosphere. After 
supper I learned what really phosphorescent 
water is. Although it was windy the boys again 
induced me to go out in the boat and watch them 
spear fish. Every time an oar was immersed 
all the water within six inches of it, right down 
to the end of the blade, glowed with the most 
wonderful brilliance. A handful of water dashed 
against the bottom of the boat simply turned to 
stars. On the whole I was so busy making fire 
works of various sorts that perhaps the wind 
was only a secondary cause of the lack of fish. 
But a most amusing thing occurred when we in¬ 
advertently drifted close to the point where the 
birds spend the night. Startled by the light and 
evidently blinded by it to such an extent that 
they could see nothing else, the entire flock of 
ducks and coots came straight at us about a 
foot above the water. There must have been 
five hundred birds and the noise and confusion 
were simply indescribable. Dozens of them 
struck the boat and two came right in and were 
captured. As they were both coots we naturally 
released them. 
The next morning, the beginning of our eighth 
day, the wind was fair, and after a six hours’ 
sail, which passed without incident, we bid a 
regretful farewell for the season to the Tamia- 
hua Lagoon. William J. Ehrich. 
The Fur Trade To-day. 
Concluded from page 934. 
Of the furs coming from North America, by 
far the most numerous in individuals is the 
muskrat. Of this species in January, 1908, the 
Hudson’s Bay Co. sold 172,318 skins, while 
Messrs. Lampson & Co., in the four quarterly 
sales of the same year, sold 3,016,905. Beaver 
are not nearly so numerous Ss one might sup¬ 
pose. The Hudson’s Bay Co. sales for January, 
1908, were 29,803, while the skins sold by Messrs. 
C. M. Lampson & Co. numbered for 1908 only 
19-716. 
The following table represents the bulk of the 
January and March sales in the year 1908 by 
the Hudson’s Bay Co. 
Beaver . 
. 29,803 
Marten . 
. 34,734 
Musquash .... 
.172,318 
Mink . 
. 21,473 
Otter . 
. 6,132 
Bear . 
. 4,702 
Fisher . 
. 4,688 
Lynx . 
. 36,201 
Fox, silver _ 
. 653 
Wolf . 
. 4,472 
Fox, cross. 
. 3,173 
Wolverine .... 
. 894 
Fox, white .... 
Fox, red . 
. 6,749 
. 7,508 
Skunk . 
. 5,205 
A comparison of the prices brought by these 
furs with the prices of the previous year is in¬ 
teresting. In January, 1908, beaver sold 5 per 
cent, lower than in January, 1907, while mus- 
THE SHORE OF DEATH. 
quash sold 30 per cent, higher than in January, 
1907; while of the furs sold in March, 1908, 
there were the following changes from the 
March, 1907, prices: Otter advanced I 2 j 4 per 
cent., fisher declined I2j4 per cent., silver fox 
advanced 7^ per cent., white fox the same, red 
fox 12^2 per cent., and cross fox 40 per cent. 
Marten declined 15 per cent, and mink 17^2 per 
cent., while lynx advanced 40 per cent, and wolf 
20 per cent., and wolverine declined 20 per cent. 
Skunk advanced 25 per cent., black bear de¬ 
clined 20 per cent, and brown bear 5 per cent. 
The furs sold by the Hudson’s Bay Co. are clas¬ 
sified according to the districts from whi'ch they 
come, the classification being indicated by sym¬ 
bols. YE means York Factory; MR, Moose 
River; EB, Eskimo Bay, with other readily in¬ 
telligible signs for Canada and the Northwest. 
It is interesting to note that the furs from 
Eskimo Bay. Labrador, are apparently better 
than those from any of the other districts; at 
all events they bring higher prices. Thus No. 
I otter from York Factory brought 94 shillings 
and 9d.; those from Moose River, 108 shillings; 
while those from Eskimo Bay brought 146. 
With the most valuable furs, the silver fox, 
which has sold at prices ranging from $1,000 to 
$1,500 per skin, this difference does not appear 
to hold good, yet it does in the cheaper foxes, 
in the martens and the mink. 
The sales held by Messrs. C. M. Lampson & 
Co., represent collections of furs from a vast 
territory and from many hands, and while in 
the table given above, the Hudson’s Bay Co. 
sold comparatively few skunks, because the 
skunk ranges scarcely or not at all in the terri¬ 
tory which they cover, the Lampsons sold in 
1908, 789,433 skunks. A table of ^heir total sales 
for the year 1908 is appended: 
Raccoon . 451,966 
Musquash .3,016,905 
Musquash, black . 53,318 
Skunk . 789,433 
Cat, Civet . 64,406 
Opossum, Amern. 540,668 
Mink . 285,472 
Marten . 34,315 
Marten, Japanese. 25,492 
Sable, Russian_ 14,892 
Sable, Japanese ... 389 
Fox, red . 99,838 
Fox, cross . 6,519 
Fox, silver . 1,140 
Fox, gray . 45,325 
Fox, kitt . 3,408 
Fox, white . 24,252 
Fox, blue . 3,379 
Otter . 12,517 
Sea Otter . 339 
Cat, wild . 19,396 
Cat, house . 59,120 
Lynx . 17,385 
Fisher . 4,447 
Badger . 12,006 
Beaver . 19,716 
Bear . 10,528 
Wolf . 40,542 
Wolverine . 644 
Hair Seal, dry.... 20,226 
Fur Seal, dry . 6,152, 
Fur Seal, salted... 74,277 
Squirrel . 254,315 
Sacs, etc. 22,824 
Fox, Japanese ... 26,782 
Badger, Japanese.. 3,804 
Kolinsky . 62,970 
Opossum, Austr’n 2,239,403 
Wallaby, Austr’n. 514,068 
Kangaroo, Austr’n 6,725 
Wombat, Austr’n. 59,174 
Red Fox, Austr’n 72,063 
Chinchilla, real.... 21,079 
Chinchilla, bastard 37,155 
Grebe . 24,003 
Nutria . 354 
Marten, Baum ... 3,790 
Marten, Stone_ 11,066 
Fitch . 16,574 
Ermine . 234,237 
As we have already compared the prices of 
the Hudson’s Bay sales made in certain quarters 
with those from previous years, we may do the 
same with the prices realized for a number of 
species at the last sale of Messrs. Lampson. The 
sales made last March, 1909, compared with 
those of March, 1908, showed the following dif¬ 
ferences : Blue fox advanced 20 per cent., cross 
fox 30 per cent. Fisher advanced 50 per cent. 
Otter remained unchanged. Lynx advanced 120 
per cent., wolverine 50 per cent., badger ad¬ 
vanced 15 per cent., wildcat 25 per cent., sea 
otter 15 per cent, silver fox 25 per cent., musk¬ 
ox 100 per cent., marten scarcely changed, skunk 
advanced 20 per cent., black bear 75 per cent., 
brown bear 40 per cent, red fox 50 per cent., 
northern raccoon 30 per cent., mink 25 per cent. 
There was little change in beaver and muskrat. 
The prices which furs bring of course depend 
on their quality. If they are good skins, high 
prices; poor skins, low prices. Skins taken at 
the wrong season of the year, badly skinned, 
badly stretched, badly dried, or shot, brings low. 
prices. Looking over a sales list issued by 
Messrs. C. M. Lampson & Co., reporting the 
results of their sales in March, 1909. we find 
they sold 3,720 blue fox skins and that .these 
brought all sorts of prices, usually from about 
70 shillings up to 275 shillings, or from about 
$17 up to over $60. There are only a few lots 
which brought over 200 shillings, but a great 
many brought from 130 shillings to 170 shillings, 
from which we may infer that if one had enough 
blue fox skins he would be well to do. Cross 
fox skins are much less costly, bringing from 
25 shillings or 30 shillings, up to 80'shillings or 
90 shillings, and one lot, characterized as dark, 
bringing 23.3 shillings. 
Fisher, of which there were more than 3,000 
skins sold, ranged from 30 shillings to no shil¬ 
lings, but will perhaps average something like 50 
shillings or in the neighborhood of $12.50 per 
skin. 
Otter, of w'hich there were about 4,000 skins 
sold, varied greatly in price, running from 20 
shillings up to 190 shillings, with the average 
perhaps not very far from 40 shillings, since 
