s that yield six martens do well. Thirty musk-rat
traps are expected to give thirty musk-rats. Add to that the twenty
shot, and what does the day's work represent? Here are thirty skins of a
coarse light reddish hair, such as lines the poor man's overcoat. These
will sell for from 7 to 15 cents each. They may go roughly for $3 at the
fur post. Here are ten of the deeper brown shades, with long soft fur
that lines a lady's cloak. They are fine enough to pass for mink with a
little dyeing, or imitation seal if they are properly plucked. These
will bring 25 or 30 cents--say $2.50 in all. But here are ten skins,
deep, silky, almost black, for which a Russian officer will pay high
prices, skins that will go to England, and from England to Paris, and
from Paris to St. Petersburg with accelerating cost mark till the
Russian grandee is paying $1 or more for each pelt. The trapper will ask
30, 40, 50 cents for these, making perhaps $3.50 in all. Then this idle
fellow's day has totaled up to $9, not a bad day's work, considering he
did not go to the university for ten years to learn his craft, did not
know what wear and tear and drive meant as he worked, did not spend more
than a few cents' worth of shot. But for his musk-rat-pelts the man will
not get $9 in coin unless he lives very near the great fur markets. He
will get powder and clothing and food and tobacco whose first cost has
been increased a hundredfold by ship rates and railroad rates, by
keel-boat freight and pack-horse expenses and _portage_ charges past
countless rapids. But he will get all that he needs, all that he wants,
all that his labour is worth, this "lazy vagabond" who spends half his
time idling in the sun. Of how many other men can that be said?

But what of the ruthless slaughter among the little musk-rats? Does
humanity not revolt at the thought? Is this trapping not after all
brutal butchery?

Animal kindliness--if such a thing exists among musk-rats--could hardly
protest against the slaughter, seeing the musk-rats themselves wage as
ruthless a war against water-worm and owlet as man wages against
musk-rats. It is the old question, should animal life be sacrificed to
preserve human life? To that question there is only one answer. Linings
for coats are more important life-savers than all the humane societies
of the world put together. It is probable that the first thing the
prehistoric man did to preserve his own life when he realized himself
was to sla