The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1876-12-07
THE FUR TRADE.
Extent Of the Operations in Animal
Skins in the World--Our Own Trade.

New York World: There never was
time when furs were in SO great a de-
mand as now. Animal life of every kind,
III Europe, Asia, Africa and America, IS
slaughtered in increasing proportion for
the hides alone For this purpose thou
sands of hunters and trappers are en-
ployed, and great companies have estab-
lished themselves and distributed their
agents. The Hudson's Bay Company
in North America has its posts strung
all the way through the Canadas from
Nova Scotia on the Atlantic to British
Columbia on the Pacific coast. st these
ports it collects immense numbers of the
skins Of bears, wolves, foxes, minks,
offers, lynXes, beavers, fishers and musk
rats, and those of martens known as
Hudson's Bay sables,) and sends them
to its headquarters in London. The
Alaska Commercial Company, chartered
by the United States, fays 100000 seals
a year and ships their skins direct to
London. The great firm Of G.. NJ. 7 mp
lea furs similar to those imported there
by the Hudson's Bay Company, and
also skins of the sea otter, the raccocn,
the skunk and the opossum from the
United States. Other fur companies
with large capital are seated in various
quarters of Europe. The yearly pro-
duction of raw furs throughout the world
is worth from $18, 900, 600 to $22, 900, 900
and the whole amount of the fur trade,
including manufactured goods, is valued
at about 100000, 900.
THE GREAT FUR MARKETS
in Europe are London, Leipsic, and
Mini Novgorod. At these points semi
annual sales Cor fairs as they are termed)
take place, and here the representatives
of leading fur houses from all parts of
Europe and America meet to make their
purchases during the months of March,
April and May. The fur trade Of Leip-
sic alone is estimated at Sc, 500, 900 a
year Sable and raccoon fur is the great
staple in Russia red fox in Turkey and
the Oriental countries skunk in Poland
and adjacent provinces musk-rat in
Germany, France and England.
New York is of course the principal
furmart in this country, and the main
depot of the shipping trade. Here are
no organized companies. The business
is carried on by private firms of large
means and long experience. The bust
ness directory of the city gives the
names of more than 100 furriers and fur
merchants, forty three of whom are i'm
porters and wholesale dealers.
In Europe, climate and weather de-
termine the extent of the call for furs as
articles Of clothing. The wearing of
furs in the United States is regulated
not SO much by climate as by fashion.
Hence, while the winters on both CONT
nents are growing milder, the demand
for furs is continually increasing in this
country, while in Europe it is falling
off. Of the skins used in America the
greatest numbers are from American
animals, though the sealskins from Alas
ka, like those which are taken at Shet-
land, at the Cape of Good Hope, at Cape
Horn, and at Lobos Island, near Monte
video, go first to England to be dyed.
There are American dyers of sealskins,
who drive large and fourishing trade !;
but they have never been able to dye
these skins as well as the London dyers.
THE SKINS OF SEA Offers,
brook-otters and beavers are dyed as
well here as abroad; but most Of the
dyers are English or Irish. AS for the
dressing of skins of all kinds, that is
done admirably in New York indeed it
is skillfully done by the Indians of the
plains and the northwestern mountains
The manufacture of furs into robes and
garments is nowhere so well accomplish
ed as in New York, although in this
task, again, foreign workmen and wo-
men are extensively employed. The
testimony of the proprietors of large
establishments is that Frenchmen and
Germans make the best furriers Amer
lean cutters, they say, ''hayen't the mack
of matching and workmanship.
So rich is the American fur trade be-
come that the show-windows and the in
terror of a metropolitan furstore present
scenes of extraordinary luxury and in
terest. The art of the taxidermist has
been called in to give mock ferocity to
the entrances, where effigies of bears
and panthers expose their tuslls, and
glare as if from under the leaves of their
native forests. Upon the floors and
counters are strewn tiger-skins, with
stuffed heads and fiery eyes and armed
paws. The red tongues Of wolves and
cougars loll between glittering teeth, and
against the walls depend the hides of
beasts that were slain III the woods, upon
the prairies, on the steppes. and among
the mountains or the jungles of every
country of the earth. At this season
dealers are increasing their stocks, and
their warerooms are thronged with Gus
toners.
THE MOST SPLENDID
and costly furs are Russian sable, sea-
otter and black and silver fox The Rus
sian sable is the finest of all the martens
and, since it is not very prolific, its skins
ere costly. The best and darkest are
obtained in Yakootsk, Kamtschatka and
Russian Lapland. The fur varies from
rich brown to deep jet black, with
points of hair tipped with white. This