Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-04-03
GREAT BLUE FOX FARMS.
REMARKABLE INDUSTRY CAR.
RED ON IN ALEUTlAN ARcHI-
PELAGO.
Islands Rent at 81 a Year-Farmers,
After Bargaining For Domains, Buy
Indian Wives, Pair Of Foxes and
Engage in Profitable Business.

t~tGff0o tt<ttt a. VI q SGt 81 NV -
After Bargaining For Domains, Buy
Indian Wives, Pair of Foxes and
Engage in Profitable Business.
Chris Miller, who for the past eleven
years has been a familiar figure on the
southwest coast of Alaska and along
The Aleutian archipelago, reached Ia
coma, Washington, recently. and is
entertaining his friends with an ac-
count of his travels.
1.-THE Aleutian archipelago" he says,
is veIitable terra incognito to even
the United States that owns it, and
the life of the inhabitants is less
known here, few miles away, on
Puget Sound, than is the daily life of
the interior tribes of Africa, sew
aral thousand miles further. The rea-
son is simple; there are no lines OF
steamers, and without sailboat OF
your own, as l have, a thousand of
the islands are practically inaccessi-
ble l have spent the summer in the
neighborhood of Kodiak Island, which
is this side of the archipelago. You
have all heard of the Red Fox Island,
but l want to tell you about the is
lands of blue foxes in the neighbor-
hood of Kodiak. There are eight or
ten of them now, though the one own
ed by the Alaska Commercial Com
pany is the largest The pelt of full
grown blue fox brings from 81 to $3.50
in the market, and since they take the
dye prettily as real sealskin itself,
there is no limit to the demand. The
company started out with a few foxes
caught alive in traps thirteen years
ago, and its island alone contains
fully 1000 foxes of all ages, while
several times that many have been
slain. The other islands are in the
hands of individuals, who purchased
their start of foxes from the COM
pany at SIS per pair.
Though Manager Wilson charges
this price for pair of foxes, which,
if killed, would net him not more
than SIS fo~ their skins, the COM
pany is not at all averse to seeing
others start up in the business and
will do all in its power to help along.
Kodiak Island has Court and a
Court Commissioner, and for 81 a
year the company VIII lease for you
from the Commissioner a whole island
from among the hundreds that there
abound. The other fellows, to the
number of nearly a dozen, who have
taken up Wilson's offer have then pro-
ceeded to one of the Indian camps and
purchased themselves a squaw and
taken her with them Olaf Bjornsen
is hooked up in this way. l was in
formed in all seriousness that | could
get one for from $25 to SIS, accord
ing to beauty and age. l didn't invest
myself, but l visited the islands of
several who had, and some of them
had retained possession of their ia
vorite squaw for six aaG eight years.
"The foxes are quite prolific. At
two years old the litter is two pups.
The following year the litter is four
and the year after seven and eight.
hNh bAAC AAtt~AO 7AON 1903, anu IL tAO
animal is kept much longer the fur
begins to split on the ends, prepare
tory to poor fur, which will not sell
well. Seldom do the owners let them
live over six or seven years before
taking their hides. Olaf had 500
foxes when l was there this summer,
having started six years ago with 20.
He had added fresh blood to his flock
since, and has not yet sold any off
his farm. In all that time he has fed
them nothing but the fish which are
caught in shoals in the pass between
Kodiak and the mainland A single
haul of a seine will sometimes land
tons of fish, so that it is no trouble to
gather all he can possibly use, they
being dried for winter use
"The foxes take to dried salmon and
thrive on it like Nalamute dogs from
the interior, and are about as tame.
Olaf has provided for his few wants
by fishing and by hunting on the
mainland, and declares he will have
no foxes for sale until he had enough
to sell for $4,000, and then he will
sell out and return to his home in the
East"
Mr.. Miller with his sailboat, visit
ed some of the islands 20 the extreme
West last summer, and thinks that
many of them have not been visited
by white men since they were the
cfonpino ctOpoc 60. D,,cr;,oc fro~o @;
IBERIA to the Russian possessions on
the mainland of Alaska. Many of the
islands are inhabited by Indians
whose recollections of the Russians,
the only white men they ever saw,
have prejudiced them against strang-
ers. They are self-sufficient, brave
and take to water like ducks. Not be-
ing wooded, the houses on these bar
rem islands are built on stills under
the cliffs of the rocky shores. Some
of the inhabitants have domesticated
goats, secured no one knows where,
and the islands abound in long, rich
grasses.
The islands vary in size from a
DuIlQIUS lot TO UuuQt0QS OF acres IN
extent. Being between Boring Sea
and the broad Pacific, they are storm
swept for weeks at time in the win
ter, during which the natives stay in
doors and live on fish caught during
the summer. Miller was unable to
trade with the Indians to any extent.
They had plenty of scar skins and sea
otter, but preferred to wait the an
nual visit of the Alaska Commercial
boats at Sebok Island each June. That
is their great rendezvous once a year.
when everything they have to sell is
taken, and in return they receive
meagre stores of tea, sugar and to-
bacco.
The Rats CT Edinburgh.
A Pied Piper of Hamelin is badly
needed in Edinburgh by the Princes
street hotelkeepers. Just now they