Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 149, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1910 — INCREASED COST OF FURS. [ARTICLE]

INCREASED COST OF FURS.

*kln« Advance Between 800 and 600 Per Cent in a Few Yearn. No fur has risen in value like the lynx in the last few years. Four years ago the dealers could buy any amount of skins for $6 apiece, writes the Canadian correspondent of Fur News. Now a large skin will fetch the trapper S3O to $33. The fact that fewer lynx have been taken this winter than last does not go to prove that they are decreasing in numbers. The lynx is ah animal that is continually traveling and he goes in a huge circle, covering thousands of miles, so that years in whiefi they are plentiful in Manitoba and the westers provinces there is likely to be a decrease in the eastern provinces. The mink does not appear to be quite so numerous as formerly. This can readily be explained by the- large price paid the trapper for skins. Ten years ago a skin that would fetch $1 now can readily be sold for $6. In Manitoba and the western provinces the season is closed for beaver and otter owing to the scarcity of these animals. However, these two magnificent fur-bearing animals are becoming more plentiful. On many parts of the Assiniboine, where th‘e beavers have not been seen for a period of twelve years, they are now visiting the old haunts and building new dams. On the Souris river the beaver has become so plentiful that farmers have complained of the damage done to small trees, particularly poplar. The weasel 1b another animal that the fur men yearly export in thousands. The weasel is easily taken by the trapper, as he Is a very inquisitive animal and is always on the move. One fur dealer of this city has already shipped 60,000 weasel skins to the English market.