Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/406

 400 TEE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

there are forty-seven^ distributed according to current taxonomic con- ceptions^ as follows : three coyotes, seven gray foxes, four red foxes, one ringtailed cat, four species of raccoon, one marten, one fisher, one wolverine, four weasels, one mink, five spotted and the same number of striped skunks, two badgers, one river otter, the sea otter, four wild cats, and two beavers. This does not take account of any domestic species, nor of the native aplodontias, marmots, squirrels, musk-rats or rabbits, the fur of which doubtless occasionally found place in the early industries of the state.

Beside the smaller species just enumerated, our fauna contained a sea elephant, and is or was characterized by a goodly list of species of more strictly big game mammals, including the pronghomed antelope, two species of bighomed sheep, the same number of black bear, two species of elk, two of mountam lions, five of deer, and six of grizzly bears.

By outlining the status of the more important of these mammals, and by following them in some of the vicissitudes of their contact with man, we can perhaps best gain a conception of what we did have, what we still have, and what the general trend of events promises for the future.

Fub-Beabino Mammals

Concerning the less important fur-bearers there are few comparative data. Evidence gathered over several years from numerous trappers indicates their steady decrease. Even yet the economic value of these for the most part unappreciated members of our fauna is not incon- siderable. In fact, according to one estimate," California's fur-bearing mammals, including only the bears, raccoons, skunks, badgers, river otter, mink, marten, fisher, red foxes and wolverine, at the present time produce an income which makes them worth seven million dollars to the state.

Of the fur-bearing land mammals, the otter and beaver seem to have been the most important. The abandonment of California as a field of work by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1841 is in itself unmistakable testimony regarding the decrease in numbers of these species. So far as can be ascertained at the present time, the otter is represented by comparatively few individuals on the "streams of northern California, south at least to Mendocino County, and through the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys to the San Joaquin Biver, Fresno County."*

The Beaver

In 1829 McKay, working in the interest of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, is said to have trapped 4,000 beavers along the reedy shores of

» Taylor, Science, N. 8., March 28, 1913, pp. 485-487. • Grinnell, Cd, Acad, Sci,, 4th Ser., 3, 1913, p. 297, and Univ. Calif. PubL Zool., 12, 1914, pp. 305-^10.

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