FOREST AND STREAM 
427 
Being Reports From Our Local 
Correspondents 
Successful Fox Ranching in Nova Scotia 
The Brighter Side of the Picture 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the June number of Forest and Stream 
there is a short article on “Fur Farming,” and 
mention is made of enormous profits that have 
been made from fox breeding. I quote the fol¬ 
lowing from that article: “Obviously however the 
matter is still in the experimental stage, although 
it has received some attention for many years.” 
Their Great-Great-Grandsire’s Pelt Sold for 
About $2,500. 
Evidently the writer of the above is not cog¬ 
nizant of the progress that has been made in 
Canada in breeding the silver black fox in cap¬ 
tivity. This business dates back about twenty 
years, and although many failures and discour¬ 
agements were encountered in the pioneer days 
patience and perseverance have been rewarded, 
and to-day the breeding and raising of black foxes 
in captivity is just as stable as any other live¬ 
stock industry. The writer is a shareholder in 
three fox companies. These companies all ranch 
their foxes under one management for the sake 
of economy. 
We have at the present time in the ranch forty 
breeders, and the crop of pups born in April, 1915, 
and now living, is forty-three, or slightly over 
100 per cent, increase for the year. We have 
three litters of six each; two of these litters be- 
liong to mothers only one year old. Our foxes 
have been ranch-bred for generations. They 
know no other life, are semi-domesticated, and 
perfectly contented with their environment. 
I send you a picture of black fox pups two 
months old. One of them is taking food from 
her keeper. These pups are bred in the purple. 
Their great-great-grandsire’s pelt sold in London, 
England, for $2,445. This picture was taken in 
June, 1914. The fox that is eating out of the 
pan bears the distinguished name of “Princess 
Alice.” In April, 1915, “Princess Alice,” not 
quite one year old, presented her owners with 
four beautiful black pups, conservative value in 
this year of war, $6,000. If any of the readers of 
Forest and Stream would like to visit the fox 
ranch, and study this industry first hand, I will 
extend to them a cordial invitation to come to 
Truro, Nova Scotia, and I will introduce them to 
Mr. E. J. Anderson, our ranch manager. Mr. 
Anderson will deem it a pleasure to conduct vis¬ 
itors through the fox pens, and show them the 
black beauties that are under his care. 
Dr. E. A. Randall, 
Truro, Nova Scotia, June 8, 1915. 
IT CARRIED HIM BACK TO NEWFOUND¬ 
LAND. 
Jamaica, N. Y., May 19, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your May number brings word of an old 
friend—John Paul! In 1904 John lived at the 
head of Seal Harbor, with his wife and children 
and her first batch-she having been married 
before. 
I went up to Pelly’s Island on a tramp steamer 
and heard of John Paul there, so down through 
Pretty Tickle to Badger Bay and up Seal Har¬ 
bor we went in the old “Greyhound” to find 
John. We were told he would be back toward 
sundown. To kill time the skipper brought a 
Victor out on deck and when John Paul arrived 
alongside in a rodney, it was playing “Come 
Back; to Erin.” A small kid (whom I think 
must be the same son referred to by Bolling in 
his story, “Across Newfoundland”), looked up to 
see who was singing. When he saw that infer¬ 
nal machine with a man’s voice coming out of 
the horn, he made a dive under the bow sheets 
and nothing would coax him out. It was sure 
“Bad Medicine!” 
I had a good trip with John and his stepson— 
then a lad of 17. The boy was awfully green, 
but John knew his trade, and a more willing 
little Indian I never met. 
Coming out we saw a cricket (a yearling cari¬ 
bou). John blatted to him and bobbed the ant¬ 
lers he was carrying on top of his pack. We 
approached within thirty yards. I was admir¬ 
ing the little fellow when John said, insinuating¬ 
ly, “He do have nice haanches, Mr. Low!” They 
were nice but I did not take them. After we 
had played with him as we had, it was too much 
like looking upon Daisy’s calf as a sporting 
proposition. 
My! but that was a nice trip, and I am glad 
Bolling and Forest and Stream took me back 
there for a few minutes after all these years. 
R. L. Low. 
HOW DID GULLS LEARN THIS TRICK? 
Germantown, Pa., June 4, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In the June number of Forest and Stream is an 
interesting communication regarding the manner 
in which a sea gull opens a clam by dropping it 
from a considerable height on a gravel road or 
broad concrete piling. 
At Broadwater, Virginia, where there are no 
gravel roads, I have often watched the gulls at 
low tide drop clams on hard sandbars in the bay 
with a high percentage of smashes 
In that region it is a coincidence that low 
water, when the clams are found, is also the time 
that the bars are bare. If high water was the 
time for clamming, the gull there would be at a 
loss for a hard surface on which to break them. 
The interesting point in connection with this 
habit of the gull is, how did he learn to do it? 
If ages ago a gull by chance dropped a clam 
from a great height on a hard sandbar, as there 
were no roads or concrete pilings in those days, 
what induced the gull to carry aloft the clam? 
