While historians have long been interested in many and varied dimensions of fur trade history, they have, until recently, either largely neglected the role of the missionary or treated him with something less than enthusiasm. This thesis seeks to understand and re-evaluate the first contact Protestant missionary in Rupert's Land, 1820-1850, by investigating his background, personality, motivation for mission, the methods he used, and particularly his attitude to and understanding of the people he served. It also examines the nascent Indian church which resulted from his presence, the role of the missionary wife, and the relationship of the clergy with "other whites". This study concludes that these early missionaries generally differed in background, outlook, and expectations from their successors in the second half of the nineteenth century; that individuality, circumstances, and the structure of fur-trade society were, in the final analysis, the most crucial components of their "success" or "failure" (both being relative terms); and that, despite their faults and shortcomings, their presence on the whole proved a salutary rather than a negative influence.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Australian National University, 2001.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Paris IV, 1975. / Includes indexes. Sources and bibliography: p. xvi-li.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 2004. / Degree granted in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web. (Restricted to UC campuses)

This is an investigation of the British Columbia trapping industry and associated markets. A major part of the study is devoted to familiarizing the reader with the present industry. The product, trapline tenure, trappers, fur traders, earnings from trapping, marketing of the product, and administrative arrangements are described. Many problems are associated with the industry today — low incomes; raw fur prices which are declining, uncertain, and unstable; widespread ignorance of proper trapping techniques, pelt handling methods, and marketing opportunities; factor immobility; and lack of organization and contact among trappers. At the local level, there is little competition among fur buyers. Either there is only one trader in an area, or if there is more than one, they often collude. In some areas, market imperfections such as ignorance of outside markets and lack of access to capital, provide an opportunity for fur buyers to exploit the primary producers. Public administrative policies are analyzed in terms of their economic consequences, and their ability to handle the problems of trappers. Present policies lack clearly defined goals, are outdated, fail to consider the socioeconomic needs of trappers, and provide few incentives for efficiency in resource use and development. Management devices succeed in conserving the resource (once the most basic problem), but today with raw fur prices low in comparison to a decade ago, they systematically lead to an underutilization of the resource. In the absence of any organized competition for traplines, there is little assurance that the rights are possessed by the most efficient producers. The primary method of raising revenue, the collection of royalty, negates the efficiency of the management system by encouraging economizing on the harvest and failure to report all animals trapped. Traders' fees ration buying rights on the basis of differential fees. Industry structure has been stagnated by measures that prevent flexibility in the scale of trapping operations. Management lacks adequate information for informed policymaking. And non-enforcement of regulations and lack of control over Indian trapping further decreases the effectiveness of the management system. Moreover, there is no effective organization for rationalizing conflicting land-use problems. As a way of overcoming these problems and leading to a more efficient development of the fur resource, the following recommendations are made: (i) full negotiability of trapline boundaries, (ii) disposition of trapline rights through public auction, (iii) simplification but expansion of present trappers' return form to include more information, (iv) extension of licensing and questionnaire requirements to all trappers, regardless of ethnic origin, (v) enforcement of regulations, (vi) abandonment of royalties, (vii) reduction of fur-traders' fee to one nominal amount, (viii) expansion of trapper education programs, (ix) encouragement of the growth of trapping organizations, and (x) special recommendations for Indians. Data and information on which this thesis is based were obtained from: (i) the provincial Fish and Wildlife Branch and the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, (ii) personal correspondence and interviews with trappers, fur buyers, provincial fur administrators, and Indian Affairs Branch authorities, (iv) mailed questionnaires to fur traders, (v) trappers' manuals, (vi) "A Report on the B.C. Fur Resources Study" (unpublished manuscript), and (vii) fur industry studies for other provinces. A sample of income for trapping in British Columbia was derived through the use of simple mathematics, provincial average fur value statistics, and the trappers' returns. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

A conceptual model is proposed that describes the dynamics of the Pribilof Islands North Pacific fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus). It is suggested that fur seals are regulated most strongly at population levels close to the limits set by the availabilities of food and breeding space. Population growth appears to be primarily regulated by changes in the rates of survival, reproduction, and dispersal of young animals. The proposed conceptual model is used to shape a mathematical formulation that incorporates basic fur seal life history features. The simulation analysis is able to explain the decline of the Pribilof Islands population by reconstructing pup estimates and counts of adult males over the period 1950 to 1980. Simulation results show that commercial female harvesting and a series of poor juvenile survival rates were responsible for the observed decline in pup production on Saint Paul Island. The lower number of bulls counted during the last two decades can be accounted for if adult male survival was higher during the 1950s. The decline in adult male survival, possibly due to debris entanglement, does not appear to be equally true of females. The major driving variable of the fur seal system and the key factor that accounts for the overall decline of the Pribilof herd is the survival of juveniles. In this regard, the continued population decline through the 1980s appears to be maintained by exogenous factors that are independent of current management practices. Model results are considered reliable if simulation parameters (particularly adult survival) contain little error. A detailed procedure for analysing the sensitivity of model output to errors in simulation parameters is described in an adjoining appendix as is a revised procedure for estimating the survival of juvenile fur seals. The thesis concludes with recommendations for future research. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

Amino acids were determined in two types of chinchilla fur (chewed and normal), using three methods for analyses The methods included microbiological assays of Barton-Wright(5) and two column chromatography techniques of Moore and Stein (7, 8). The data obtained from this investigation indicate that of the 16 amino acids analyzed, only one (lysine) was forum to be significantly lower in the chewed fur, as indicated by the "t" test. This difference between the normal and chewed fur was significant at the 2.5% 1evel. Also, arginine was lower and histidine was higher in the chewed fur than in the normal fur, but these difference: were not as conspicuous. In general, the microbioligical analyses were more time consuming end less reproducible than the chromatographic analysis. With the exception of proline, glycine, and leucine, higher values were obtained fer the mine acids using the microbiological methods than with the column fractions. The greatest difficulty was encountered in analyzing the basic amino acids. / Master of Science

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, people living in coastal Louisiana noticed that local rodents called muskrats were rapidly increasing and quickly becoming pests by digging up crops and into levees. Property owners soon demanded their elimination, but to the ire of many, Louisiana officials chose to develop a market for muskrat fur and protect its supply through management laws. The state sought the cooperation of trappers in order to maintain global demand, but when nutria were released alongside the muskrat, the ecological balance of the marsh was permanently altered. Muskrats shrank back into obscurity, and trappers struggled to embrace the nutria as a substitute. This thesis will trace the Louisiana muskrat industry's development starting with its rise in the 1890s, continuing through its years as a leading furbearer, and ending with its replacement by the nutria in the 1960s.

No description available.

Thesis--University of Minnesota, 1926. / Bibliography ; numb. 1, 106-124.