Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-05-07
ISLANDS OF BLUE FOXES.
Where the Animals Are Raised
for Their Pelts.

Chris Miller, who for the last II years
has been a familiar figure on the
southwest coast Of Alaska and along
the Aleutian archipelago, reached Ia
coma recently, where he entertained
his friends with an account OF his trav-
els.
THE Aleutian archipelago" he says,
"1s q veritabls terra incognita even to
the United States that owns it, and the
life of the inhabitants is less known
here on Puget sound than is the daily
life of the interior tribes of Africa
several thousand miles farther away.
The reason is that there are no lines
of steamships, and without a sail boat
of your own, as ! have, thousand OF
the islands are practically inacces-
sible.
81 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 islands,
but I want to tell you about the is
lands of blue foxes in the neighbor-
hood of Kodiak There are eight to
ten of them now, though the one
owned 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 as prettily as a real sealskin itself
l. lfr,t4 n fha do m and The
company started out with few foxes
caught alive in traps 10 years ago, and
now its island alone contains fully a
thousand of all ages, while several
times that many have been slain. The
other islands are in the hands OF in
dividuals, who purchase their start Of
foxes from the company at S75 pair.
Though Manager Wilson charges
this price for pair of foxes, which, II
killed, would net him not more than
SIS for their skins, the company is not
at all averse to seeing others start up
in the business, and it will do all in its
power to help them along. Kodiak
island has a court and a court COM
missioner, and for 81 a year the com
pany will lease for you from the COM
missioner a whole island from among
the hundreds.
"The other fellows, to the number
of nearly a dozen, who have taken up
Wilson's offer, have proceeded to one
of the Indian camps and purchased
themselves a squaw and taken her with
them. Biornsen, a friend of mine, is
hooked up this way. I was informed
in all seriousness that I could get one
for from $25 to $75, according to beauty
and age. I didn't invest, but Visited
the islands of several who had, and
some of them had retained possession
of their particular squaw for six and
eight years.
"The foxes are great as breeders. At
two years old the litter is two pups,
the following year four and the year
after seven and eight. Then the litter
grows less, and if the animal is kept
much longer the fur begins to split
on the ends and will not sell well Sell
dom do the owners let them live over
six or seven years before taking their
hides. Biornsen had 500 foxes when
I was over there this summer, having
started six years ago with 200. He has
added fresh blood to his flock since
and has not yet sold any off his farm.
In all that time he has fed them moth
ing but the fish which are caught in
shoals in the pass between Kodiak and
the mainland. A single haul of seine
will sometimes land tons of fish, so it
is no trouble to gather all he can pos
sibly use.
"The foxes take to dried salmon
and thrive on it like Malamute dogs
from the interior. Bjornsen has pro-
vided for his few wants by fishing and
by hunting on the mainland, and he
declares that he will have no foxes for
sale until he has enough to sell for
$4,000, and then he will sell out and
return to his home in the east. The
foxes become as tame as dogs"
Mr.. Miller, with his sailboat, visited
some of the barren islands to the ex-
IRENE west last summer, and he thinks
that some of them have not been Wis
tied by white men since they were the
stepping stones for Russians from ST.
IBERIA to the Russian possessions on the
mainland of Alaska. Many of the is
lands are inhabited by Indians, whose
recollections of the Russians, the only
white men they ever saw, have preju-
diced them against strangers. They
are brave and take to water like ducks.
The houses 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 from the size of a
building lot to hundreds Of acres in
extent. says a Tacoma special to the
New York Times. Being between
Bering sea and the Pacific, they are
storm-swept for weeks at time in
the winter, during which the natives
lust stay indoors and live on the fish
caught in the summer. Miller was
unable to trade with the Indians to
any extent. They had plenty of seal
skins and sea otter, but preferred to
await the annual visit of the Alaska
Commercial boats at Sebok island each
June. That is their great rendezvous
once year, when everything they have
to sell is taken, and in return they re-
ceive meager stores of tea, sugar and
tobacco.
TlckIed Them.