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Show 66 BASIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1500 the London fur market for the last century gives an idea of the vast importance of the trade. Excepting the seals, the most valuable fur- bearers belong to the Mustelidse or weasel family, represented by the weasel, mink, sable, badger, skunk, wolverine, otter, and sea- otter. The fur- bearing rodents include the squirrel, hare, musk- rat, and beaver; but the beaver, which originally inhabited almost all the wooded valleys of North America, is now nearly extinct, except in some parts of the Rocky Mountain region. At the present day the musk- rat far outranks all other rodents in importance; the number of skins of that species marketed in 1900 exceeded five million. 1 In recent years the most important branch of the fur industry has been the seal- fisheries of Alaskan waters, widely known through international complications arising out of efforts by the United States government to protect the seals in the high- seas. Ever since the discovery of the Pribyloff Islands in 1786 the fur seal ( Callorhinus) has been ruthlessly slaughtered, but it is of interest to note that\ since 1799, when the Russian- American Company was formed, laws have existed for its protection. From 1870 to 1890 the seal- fisheries, carefully guarded, gave a yearly yield of one hundred thousand skins. About 1886 the destructive practice of pelagic sealing ( shooting the animals at sea during migration) began on a large scale, and has resulted in sadly 1 U. S. Pish Commission, Report, 1904. |