The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-10
EVENTS IN TIE LIE 0F 4 FUR HUNTER Alone in the Wilderness for Seven Long Months HIS VOCATION NOT EASY The Silver Gray and Black Foxes Most Prized of Fur-Bearing Animals
 to Be Found in
 Maine.
 

Medway, Me-The skins of about 100 bears, 200 loups cerviers, 500 otters, loOo fisher cats, 5000 foxes, 5O,O0O skunks and 125, GOO muskrats are taken in Maine eV- cry year and find their way into the mar kets of the world, most of them going to London to be disposed of at the an- nual auction sale made by the Hudson Bay company.
 The muskrat skins go to Germany where they are dyed and tanned and then made up in cheap muffs and collars for the export trade. Many of the fox belts come back to America under fancy names, after being ordered and made up.
 Not a few of the skunk skins are color ed and manufactured in this country. The bear skins seldom quit this side of the Atlantic, as there is a great demand for bearskin robes and rugs in the northern states.
 Most of the mink skins are used for the lining of expensive fur coats, though a good number are made into muffs and other furs worn by well-dressed women. Nearly all the choice otter skins go to Russia, where they command high prices.
 In average years there will be taken two silver gray foxes and one black fox out of total 3O,OOO foxes. The former are comparatively cheap, netting the trapper from s250 to s400 each, while large skin from black fox commands anywhere from $500 to $500, according to i.s size and the fneness of the fur.
 Except for tufts of long gray hairs on the shoulders and a line of gray extend- ing down the back, there Is no differ ence between a silver gray and a black fox The body coloring of both is shiny black; the greater the luster the higher the price.
 Wealthy Russian nobles have ordered all the silver gray and black fox peits that may be secured for years in ad vance. and stand ready to pay almost fabulous prices sooner than miss a single specimen.
 Lured by Honey. A few hunters make business of talk ing sable furs in the northern woods late in the winter by boring auger holes in maple trees and then driving sharp nails into the wood surrounding the fresh hole, the points of the nails converging and almost meeting at the center. Then, by inserting lump of fresh honey back or the nail points, the animals are led to catch themselves Owing to the scarcity of these animals in Maine and the greater size and beauty of the Siberian sables, few persons try to capture them.
 The lot of the professional fur trapper is not an easy one. He must carry his traps and supplies far into the woods, back from the avenues frequented by lumbermen and tourists.
 To do this he must build a low bodied and wide runnered sled. capable of hold ing up a weight of 300 pounds. Having loaded the sled with fat pork flour, In- dian meal, a shift of underclothing and stockings, and all the traps he can haul, he waits until the lakes and sluggish streams have Ice strong enough to bear up man, and then starts out into the wilderness for a lonely life of from five to seven months.
 Some little skill Is needed in selecting a place for putting out a line of traps. | To save time and extra travel 1t is cus- tomary to find two large brooks or streams which flow In the same direction, ! and which are not far apart. By making I his home camp at the confluence of the two streams. and setting his traps along | both he can visit forty miles of traps in two days by going up one line twenty miles and camping In a brush shack at night and returning down stream on the second line the next day.
 Rely on Mink and Otter. | It takes a smart man to attend to 100 | traps and do 1t so as to get best results. Most of the animals sought are fishers, mink and otter, as 1t does not pay to drag a muskrat skin through snowdrifts and over rough roads for fifty or seventy | five miles for the sake of selling it for | a maximum price of 25 cents Small attention Is paid to foxes, as they do not frequent the banks of streams l and are not nearly so common in the forests as about the clearings. With fisher | cats skins selling for s5 each and with | mink at $6 and otter at from $10 to SIP, there is often big profit in q winter 8 work, though the labor is very exactng and the loneliness often drives the trap pers insane.
 Every trapper relies upon the fish and animals he captures for bait for his traps, and for a good portion of his own food. | Otters prefer fresh pickerel to any other l food though minks like raw muskrat best, taking hare meat second choice. Fisher cat are very careful about what | they eat One of these animals may be | starving for food and never go near z l baited trap for all winter; but cut a hole l a few inches in dept on the ice of a | frozen pond and conceal trap in the hole, and then leave few frozen pick erel lying about and the cautious beast