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Second Counc. Meet.......(3)

[[underline]] Dr. Fisher [[/underline]]: Mr. Wetmore, can you tell us something about fox farming in Alaska?

[[underline]] Mr. Wetmore [[/underline]]: I might tell something about the blue and silvery gray fox farming up in Alaska.  In southwestern Alaska there was very little I could learn.  The reports were contradictory and some of the information I got was unreliable.  I found there were certain men engaged in fox farming in a crude way.  One man held Umnak, an island about 40 miles long by 10 or 15 miles wide, which he used as a fox farm.  He had it stocked with silver gray foxes and it was claimed that had very good skins, but I did not see any of them.  He is the only man I could learn of who appeared to be making any money in fox farming.  The pass between Unmak and Unalaska is about 15 miles wide.

[[underline]] Dr. Fisher [[/underline]]: What did he feed the foxes?

[[underline]] Mr. Wetmore [[/underline]]: This man did not feed them, but a Mr. Carlson on Uyak did so.  He catches cod for his foxes, and puts them in a big square box, in one end of which is a door that swings inwards and on the other one that swings outward, and the foxes learn to go in at one door and out at the other.  There are thousands of gulls in that country and in winter they are hard pressed for food, so it is necessary to protect the food provided for the foxes.  If they took more pains in feeding the animals much better results would be had, as they can easily catch all the cod necessary to feed the foxes, but the people are rather shiftless and indifferent.
     Mr. Groswold of Sandpoint, Alaska, had 4 islands on which he held foxes.  Chernabora Island, on which he caught about 20 foxes a year, was the only one th^[[at]] brought returns.  Chernabora to the Eastward, another island, did not bring him anything.  The way they farm foxes up there is to get a pair or two of foxes, turn them loose on some island, and call it a fox farm, then come back in two or three years and trap[[strikethrough]] p [[/strikethrough]] off a number of them.  The country is sparsely settled and everybody knows who is moving up and down the coast, so it would be a difficult matter to poach without being discovered.
     Mr. Chas. Rosenberg had Unimak stocked with red foxes, but he merely trapped off the increase every year.  Unimak is a large island about 60 by 20 miles square, and is the first island to the west of the Alaska peninsula.  False or Isanotski pass lies between Unimak and the mainland, but is not practicable for vessels of any size.  Mr. Rosenberg has a series of camps with a trap line between them, and he goes from one to the other carrying his supplies on pack dogs; he makes these rounds all winter long.
    Redeon Dunkin of Belkofaky had red foxes on Dolgoi Island.  I heard that he did very well but he would not give me any information himself.  Red foxes do not bring