Weekly journal-miner., 1909-04-07
COST OF COUNTIES ON
 "VARRIINTs" FOR YEAR
From Thursdays DaiIy)


 Bounty hide receipts of the super visitors office yesterday show that skunk trapping has already com meneed. Clerk Peter receives letters dail from all parts of the county ask ing of the bounty on skunk hides will be paid by the board. When seen yes terday Clerk Peter said that he was sure that skunk skinning will grow into an important industry in the month of April and that he looked for m unprecedented increase in skunk furs in his monthly hide receipts. He added that the fear of eternal skunk perfume in his ofice since the passage of the new bounty law was removed yesterday with the receipt of the first consignment of these hides. He said that they were entirely free from any odOr and declared that he felt relieved that the late legislature did not pro vide in the new law that the smell had to be surrendered with the hide and claws before the bounty could be claimed.
 Speaking of skinning skunks yester- day, Missouri skunk expert trsppsr said that all odor can be removed from a skunk after it is dead by immersiag the body in water a few days before the hide is removed.
 Four persons were bitten by hydro phobis skunks last year. Three were treated at the Pasteur Institute iR Chicago, one of whom died a few months after returning home The fourth ease resulted fatally. The vic tim was an old-time trapper. He mad been bitten by many varmints before and in the belief that the hydrophobia skunk bite was no more dangerous than any other animal refused to % to the Chicago institute for treatment. He was attacked with hydrophobis three weeks later. Death claimed hiH in the hospital here four days after his arrival.
 Bounty hide receipts by Clerk Peter yesterday were the furs of eight skunks and one wild eat from s. A. Greer of Lynx Creek, the hides of three coyotes from Peter Marum of Congress, and the pelts of eight wild cats and two skunks from Fred Gros- jean of the Black Hills.
 With the wholesale slaughter of skunks now inaugurated, it is feared by many that the price of skunk oil will advance materially the coming year unless some enterprising person or firm starts the manufacture of the precious ointment here.
 Judging from the number of small traps purchased at local hardware houses since the new bounty law was signed by Governor Kibbey, it is safe to assume that the business of trap ping skunks will be a flourishing one in the next few months. The new law provides for bounty of $1 on the hides of all breeds of the odorifer- ous Mephitis Americana. The entire hide with the claws and including the outer covering of the head must be to the clerk of the board of supervisors before a claim for the bounty can be filed. Stages leaving here for the mining camps and the valleys carry eonsignments of small traps daily. In fact. the demand has almost exhausted the supply in the local hardware establishments.
 Yavapai county paid $l1, ,3S3.75 for bounty on wild animal hides in the year 1908. By far the largest portion of the amount was paid for wild cat and lynx furs. These commanded a boun- tv of S each under the old law. Un- der the new law only sl is allowed for wild eat pelts. The bounty on coyotes was advanced from Sl to s under the new law. This advance will also add impetus to the coyote trap ping industry, while the bOb-tailed fe- line by reason of the reduction of the bounty on eat pelts from S to sl will not be stalked by the trapper as often as before.
 Counties on lobo wolves. bears and lions are $lO each under the new statute. The hide of the lobo and lion commanded 500 each last year.
 SIGNIFICANCE OF MINING