The Cordova daily times., 1920-08-09
BY MARY BAEN WRIGHT


 some peoples ideas, seems to consist mainly of sitting around cozily and reading magazines, while the foxes grow fur into dollars for you," re- marked J. F. Appleby of the Peak island fox farm. to me one day last winter, while he was on a trip to Cordova. But they have another guess coming. A fox farmer must keep busy and right on the job, the same as any one else"
 In a visit last week to Peak and Story islands, where blue foxes are raised, I realized the truth of MT Ap- pleby's words.
 Look on chart showing the west side of Prince William sound, north of that group of large islands which includes Montague, Bainbridge, La tcUche and Horodovo, and you will find a group of three, much smaller Storey, Peak and Naked islands, the last probably bigger than the other two combined.
 Landing on Storey island in the mid dle of the night, and in a drenching rain at that, could not get much idea of my surroundings till the next day. Storey island is perhaps the pioneer fox ranch of this section of Alaska, having been stocked as far back as 1895 by Fred Liljegren, who holds the present lease and lives on the island now with his daughter, Miss Amanda, and his son, Edwin MT. Liljegren is a native of Sweden and is now in his sixtieth year. Sturdy health, intelli- gence and kindliness are. the main inn pressions he makes on one meeting him. He is adored by his children and stands high in the esteem of all who know him.
 His island, like the other two of the group, is very rugged and heavily for ested, with a coast line of some ten or twelve miles.
 Peak island, across a narrow chan neI, was named for a high peak which can be seen for many miles, and Naked island was so named because no quadrupeds were found on it prior to it's being stocked with foxes
 Come and look at Becky out here on her log."' called Miss Liljegren to me on the morning after my ar rival. From the kitchen window I saw a maltese colored fox, lying on a log a few feet away, and watching the back door with small, round, yellow eyes, in evident expectation of 8 fhand-out"
 was much surprised at the small size of the foxes. They are just about as big as full grown cat The skins one sees ready for sale bear the thick, heavy winter coat, and besides are stretched lengthwise, taking up the width of the animal, so to speak.
 Three of the creatures habitually haunted the kitchen door and would even come on into the house if the door were left open. Another came every evening to the beach in front of the house to enjoy a sort of concert conversation with Miss Liljegren, who has learned to initiate perfectly the peculiar bark and yelp of her furry friends. For ten minutes at a stretch they would talk back and forth, after which the fox would run on about his business, apparently much gratifed.
 Most of the creatures, however, are very wild. During the night they leave their burrows back in the inac- cessible fastnesses of the island and prowl around in the dark, now and then voicing an odd series of yelps which sound like the call of a seagull On a stretch of beach across from the house we could see as many as nine frolicking around.
 When people ask me how many foxes we have" said MT. Liljegren "I answer count them'" I can imag- inc no more hopeless task than to take the census of a fox island.
 The work referred to by MT. Apple by, of the neighboring island, consists mainly of providing and distributing food for the foxes One large build ing, erected for storehouse, con- tained two enormous vats each hold ing g barrels of sa1ted salmon, and