A GOOD FUR YEAR.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17673, 27 January 1923, Page 7

A GOOD FUR YEAR.

Alberta, Canada. The rabbit is the index of the Canadian fur trapper's prosperity. When the little rabbit is seen by the thousand in the northern wildernesses the trapper knows that he will have a good season, for most of his "catch" of fox, marten, and ermine depends upon a rabbit diet in winter.

Old trappers say that rabbits come and go in mysterious cycles every seven years. They explain that some unknown disease attacks the rabbit every seventh year, and that then bunny disappears completely. The disease takes a form that drives the rabbit underground, for no skeletons are ever found.

But the year when the rabbits go means the disappearance of most of the fur-bearing animals also. The experienced trapper knows this, and his trap-line, which may in good years extend to a round of perhaps 15 to 20 miles, may run into a line of 60 miles in the no-rabbit season. Even then he may trap only enough fur to provide him with next winter's food. This winter is a good "rabbit year." The northern woods are alive with a little rabbit who turns snow-white with the first snow.

The trapper calls this th« "snowshoe" rabbit, because of his print in the snow, which is strangely like that of a snoW-shoe. Wolf and lynx, red ! fox and white, ermine and marten will hunt the little bunny till the spring, and will flourish on the diet he provides.

Were the price of raw furs to remain constant in good rabbit years and bad, the good rabbit year would mean "big money" for the trapper. But alas! when rabbits are plentiful and furs are plentiful the market speedily becomes overstocked, and down goes the price of the raw fur to the trapper. However, your true northern trapper is a cheery optimist. He dons his hood and mitts, shoulders his trap, rifle, food, and blankets, and grins you a cherry farewell ere the seven months' winter swallows him up. He will make a living of sorts anyway, and there is ever the trapper's motto to fall back'"on—"Next year will be a good raw fur year."