The Fur-bearing Animals of Alaska.

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 64

The Fur-bearing Animals of Alaska.

Previous to the discovery of the Klondyke goldfields the game end fur-bearing animals of Alaska were left pretty much to themselves, for the journey -from Hndson Bay to the countiy west of the Mackenzie was not one lightly to be undertaken. The developments of the- last two or three yeajs, however, have altered aifthis, and Dawson City, according to the report of the United States consul, has now become the central market for furs for a vast extent of country stretching from the Mackenzie to the coast. In this area, it is said, about 1000 hunters and trappers, exclusive of the Indians, are constantly at work, and furs to the value of £70,000 are annually exported. London quotations govern the local prices, and these latter are fixed twice yearly — in March and August — by a board of the fur traders in Dawson.

Of the various species obtained, the marten is the most abundant and the black fox the rarest. The former occurs on all the rivers, and some 30,000 skins are yearly taken, the price ranging from 14s to 50s, but of the Watk fox only about five or six are exported, and each is worth from £40 to £60. The silver-grey foxes are aho extremely valuable, fetching as much as £42. As on the other Mcle of Behring

— — — — — -.—. — — o Strait, bears are common enough. The furrier", using distinctions which naturalists do not all recognise, speak of black, brown, silver-tip, grizzly, and cinnamon bears, aucl describe them as being generally distributed. Their skins are quoted at from £2 to £5. and about 3000 are annually sent to Europe. Beaver', are still found on all the rivers but are most numerous on the White, Pelly. and Stewart Rivers. Their skins are about equal to those of the otter in value, fetching a maximum price of 30s, but the latter would seem to be far lebs numerous, or, at least, more difficult to obtain, for only 200 were exported, as against 12 times that number of beaver pells. Lynxes' come chiefly from the neighbourhood of the Dalton trail; of these and of the black and grey wolves the same number, about 2000, are captured every year; but the «kins of both are of little value, only fetching from 4s to 10s at Daw^on City. Present rates, compared with last year's prices, show an increase on bear, beaver, otier. and mink, and if there are already 1000 trappers at work there are likely to ba twice that number 111 a year or two, so that enhanced prices are not improbable. With Alaska ransacked, and north-ea^t Siberia, and Kamchatka threatened by an invasion of gold seekers, the Ki'-t fastnesses of the fur-bearing animals aie dt the meicv o f ih.it most ruthless of extol minatory, the piofe-^iona 1 trappor.