There were many disappointments in
the sales room that afternoon, George
Little told me later, that instead of $285,-
000.00 in sales there was only about
$140,000.00 worth. Prices had taken a
rapid slide to pre-war levels.

The prices of all furs took a slide on
a toboggan, and some smashed at the
bottom. Last year at the January sale the
top price for Marten was $185. This
year the top price was $84. Best wild
Mink went at $35, the lesser grades tak-
ing the worst beating. Good squirrel skins
last year sold for over a dollar each, this
year sold for 50 cents each. Poor squirrel
skins were not acceptable even as gifts.

Fox skins, beautiful things, that at one
time were the most valuable of pelts,
were practically worthless. A hundred
and twenty-five dollar pelt last year was
this year worth ten or fifteen dollars...
if you could find someone to buy them.

The law of supply and demand was
viciously at work.

The real effect of this was not illu-
strated until I returned to my place of
business at Bella Coola.

“What are the fur prices?”

The general response to the informa-
tion that I had gathered was one of dis-
gust.

More than a hundred trappers, direct
acquaintances, refuse to go on the trap-
lines. “What's the use,” they say, “Grub
is up, guns are up and furs are down.
We'll stay at home.” :

Economically, that might help solve
their own problem. The law of supply
and demand is always at work, and if
they refuse to catch the furs this winter,
these trappers can go next winter and
reap the harvest, and because they have
caused a slightly less glut on the fur
market, the prices will go up. But if the
Russians have, as some fear, a five years’
supply of fur to put on the markets that
generally take Canadian furs, then the
prices of furs will stay down and a por-
tion of our Indian population will retreat
into poverty; a lot of white man’s trap-
ping cabins will be uninhabited, and culti-
vation of furs in pens will drop.

If the price of furs remain at the
present level, which we shall call the pre-
war level, and other prices rapidly follow
down so that the trapper isn’t the one to
take all the load, then things will possibly
go on as before. But one cannot tell.
Time, the universal healer is also the uni-
versal revealer, and we must await the
turning of the calendars by Time.

COMPLIMENTS OF

CECIL CAFE

Bill Martin, Chef

Where Good Food Is
Unexcelled

Duncan, B. C.

SEVENTEENTH EDITION

PeoeO le Iba VHS DARE

CONST. J. MURDOCH, i/c, Blue River
Detachment, was notified at 4.30 a.m.
on the morning of September 26th, 1937,
that one man had been stabbed with
a knife and that another had been shot,
at Rosberg Brothers’ pole camp, Mile
111, situated 21 miles east of Blue River.
After calling a doctor, the officer started
at once for the scene of the crimes.

He arrived there at 7.15 a.m. and found
a ol named Arne Anderson dead in his
bunk at the main bunkhouse of the camp.
He had died only a short time before the
officer’s arrival. A superficial examina-
tion disclosed that Anderson had also been
wounded in his right arm between his
elbow and shoulder.

Another man, Ole Zakreson, was also
in the bunkhouse. He had his left hand
bandaged. Close by, Lars Pearson, an-
other camp employee, was found with a
badly bruised eye.

On being questioned they all agreed
that a man named Gibson had dealt out
the injuries and death.

The officer could see that the men were
suffering from the after effects of liquor.

The Gibson cabin was, they said, the
scene of the trouble. At about 7.30 the
previous evening they had been asked
over there to attend a party. They had
gone and on arrival found three men
there. There was a woman present also
whom everyone called Mrs. Gibson, but
was in reality Lora Allison. She presided
over the serving of drinks and the party
got under way.

Homebrewed beer flowed like water. It
was a potent brew. Soon everybody was
drunk. Nobody saw the going of the
three men. They left under their own
power, steering an erratic course. Then
occurred one of those incidents which are
highly amusing to certain persons under

DUNCAN IRON WORKS —

MACHINISTS — WELDERS
BLACKSMITHS

e
DUNCAN, B.C.

Telephone 604

GRAY MOTOR COMPANY
AUTOMOBILE SALES AND SERVICE

DODGE TRUCKS
DODGE AND DE SOTO CARS
INDUSTRIAL MOTORS

Duncan, B.C.

Government St.

GARNER BROS. LTD.
Retail Merchants
Builders’ Supplies, Hardware, Roofing
Paints and Varnishes, Wallpaper, Etc.

Construction Building and Grading
Approved Roofing and Insulation Applicators

Phone 694, Duncan Night Calls 91-L-2
DUNCAN British Columbia

The end of a coyote hunt in the north woods. Coyotes, run down by dog and saddle-horse (and
frequently without dogs) are brought to bay so exhausted they can’t move, and are dispatched with
a hammer or club. This sport does not pay off in cash dividends the way it used to.
—Photo Clifford R. Kopas

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