Chapter Three 53

mentioning. Before moving on to a short account of them, a new industry which had sprung up in Tignish and spread to many parts of the Island and even elsewhere in Canada should be mentioned. Charles Dalton, a farmer of Irish descent from North. Cape and a keen sportsman, was its founder, together with Robert Oulton of Alberton, the nearest important community to Tignish. In the course of Dalton’s outings, he found several mutant foxes, which were black instead of the usual reddish shade. After some experimentation and probably more than one attempt, he got them to breed in captivity. Black fox pelts fetched high prices on the British and European markets, and silver foxes, another mutation, became even more popular. Prices for breeding stock soared, as other Islanders tried to emulate Dalton's success. By the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, he had become a millionaire. The fox industry flourished, but although fox furs were in vogue for some time, no one else in Tignish got rich on it.

This success story is not really relevant to a study of survival, co-operation, and independence in the Tignish area. Why then include it here? It is part of the economic history of the district, and illustrates even better than the story of the Myrick Company how a small community can benefit very little, if at all, from a lucrative business if it is owned by one individual or one family. In theory, anyone who could buy a breeding pair of foxes might make money. In practise, the industry required such a large investment - foxes were expensive as were their buildings, fences and feed. Only people with a steady income from other sources could afford to go into it. Typically it was well-to—do farmers and professional men who invested in fox ranching — and there were few such men in the Tignish area.