The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-23
FOX FARMING IN ALASKA.
A Successful Experiment on the
semedies Group of Islands.

A Successful Experiment on the
semedies Group of Islands.
Fox farming in Alaska, which has
assumed immense proportions, was
originated by a Pittsburger. In 1879
George Wardman was travelling about
the coast in the steamer Rush. He
saw a valuable black fox skin sold for
$500, and conceived the notion tina
farming the fox would be profitable.
He got Preach Taylor, Thomas Il.
Morgan and James G. Redpath inter
ested, and company was formed.
The gentlemen are agents OF the
Alaska Commercial company at st.
George.
Morgan suggested as a place for the
experiment the semedies group of
seventy rocky islets, sixty miles west
of Kodiak, which produced nothing
but sea birds and sea lions, and are
uninhabited. At the seal islands Of
the Pribyloff group the Alaska Com
mercial company catch from LOCO to
600 blue foxes every winter. The
black foxes are scare, while the blue
fox is not nearly so valuable.
During the winter of 1880 arrange
ments were made with an agent at
Kodiak to get some black fox cubs.
he was away on business the natives
killed the cubs by kindness and by
overlooking them. No more of the
cubs could be found, and no further
effort to carry out the scheme was
made until the summer of 1884, when
about twenty blue fox cubs We're
caught They were taken in a steamer
to Unalaska, and thence in a charter
ed schooner, with a quantity of seal
meat, ITO the Semedies islands. where
they were released.
The islands are inaccessible except
in calm weather, which helped the
enterprise, as it kept poachers and
Indians from catching the stock. AT
first it was difficult to get any right
on the land. The treasury depart
ment, however, addressed a letter to
revenue steamers, and the provisional
government of Alaska, to give their
protection to the fox farmers under
the law protecting squatters. and the
company has not been molested in its
enterprise.
The foxes eat eggs and catch birds
in the summer. They are also adopts
in killing sea lions, which serve them
for food. They are very Intelligent.
They take the eggs in summer and
hide them in the thick moss, which
Is like mattresses, anu ledNe tuclu ull-
til they get hungry in winter, and
can find nothing else to eat. If they
hid the eggs in the dirt they would
be unable to scratch the frozen ground
away from them in winter, hence the
wisdom displayed in covering them
with moss The foxes have been
watched during the months Of July
and August on the cliffs searching for
eggs, and have been tracked to their
hiding places.
The blue fox pelt is valued at SIS.
and as seals become scarcer it be-
comes more valuable. All attempts to
catch black foxes have proved failures,
as they are so scarce. Natives are
hired to live on the island and watch
the foxes. The latter are trapped in
certain seasons, killed and skinned.
The carcasses are valueless, as the In
dams, who will eat almost anything,
will not touch the fox meat. The
number has multiplied from twenty
cubs to about 500 foxes, and they have
been trapped every season since they
were large enough to be of value. Mr.
sold his interest to Byron
Andrews of Washington. The company
is in a fair way to make large. for
tunes from fox farming
ommercial-Gazette.