But it should be remembered that, with the
recent great rise in prices, fewer skins may mean more money, and that
even the establishment of fox farms, and the probable establishment of
other fur farms, may not overtake the present increasing demand, which,
in its turn, must tend to deplete the original source of supply still
further, unless strict conservation is enforced. There was a wonderful
supply of foxes a year ago, though nothing to the muskrats which
swarmed down south last fall. But failure of food further north may
have had more to do with those irruptions than any outburst of unusual
fecundity. Caribou apparently remain much as they have been lately. But
the hunger of wolves and the greed of men are two enemies that nothing
but conservation can keep in check. Of course, genuinely "necessary
food" is not at all in question. I know an old hunter, living at
Pokkashoo in summer and St. Augustine in winter, who brought in sixteen
caribou last season. But he gave fifteen away to really necessitous
families and kept only one for himself.
The whale factories at Lark Harbour and Hawke Bay, on the west coast of
Newfoundland, were both closed for want of whales. The only one in the
Gulf that was working last year was at Seven Islands, on the North
Shore, 300 miles below Quebec.
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