The Penn's Grove record., 1883-11-10
Furs of All kinds.

4 You see, by spreading open the nau OF
T this seal there are two kinds Of hair
! one, the fur that is short rnd lies close.
\ ly TO the skin and another the overhaiI
? that is long and what we see ct a first
/ glance of the animal. The difference
between the two is very great, the fur
being soft, downy, silky and sometimes
curly, while the overhair is course and
rigid. Each has a peculiar value for
many purposes, but particularly in
felting, the fine, upon treatment to hot
water, readily joins IN a solid mass,
while the long hair can be woven and
spun. When the animal Is alive the uses
Of the two hairs are seen. The fine
underhair keeps out water and cold,
while the overhair prevents felting and
eDtangling. In some cases n is ex-
tremely valuable alone, and in others
the combination is equally SO.
SIN former times" continued the
dealer, ''the fur trade was controlled By
vast monopolies, but now is in the
hands of private individuals. One Of
the largest companies is the Alaska
Company, formed about fifteen years
ago. They have certain privileges aud
only one hundred Thousand animals are
allowed to be taken a year. They also
pay a certain amount to the government
Tor all the seals taken at the Pribylov
Islands, but beyond this and a few re-
strictions II Russia the trade is open to
all under the given restrictions. The
old Hudson Bay Company, at least In
name. is still in existence, but has its
principal office in London, where, In
the months OF January, September and
March of each year, all their skins are
sold at puolic auction.
"The rawskin of an American fur seal,
sailed, is worth about $18, perhaps mor
OF less. The largest are about three by
six feet. But the very best fur comes
from the Antarctic wattrs, the Shetland
Islands principally. The fur is remark
ably fine and light and they are worth
$40 or $50 a skin in first hands.
New York ge's the bulk of American
skins, and from there they are shipped
to London, Leipsic and various cities.
At the latter city they have spring and
autumn fairs, like our State fairs, where
skins are bought and sold in great num-
bers. AT the great fairs of Nijpi-Nov-
gorod, Kasan and Irbit. in the Ural
mountains, there are great fur sales,
while the same is true of kiachla, in
Siberia. The great centres all have
their peculiarlties. Thus staple furs,
or those made into bats, etc., mainly
from the rabbit come from Russia,
France and Germany; but the great fur
trade centre of the world Is London.
ALI the world-North and South Amer
lea, Asia, Africa-send their goods
there. These skins arc all shipped
dried, the meat and fat having been
carefully removed. The fur seal pelt.
however, is shipped in salt. After furs
are made up the clippings are all sent to
certain places and made into hats, etc., |
OF various kinds. Nothing is lost.
Gone of the greatest difficulties in this
country is to find good dyers conse-
q~uently most of the best dyeipg is done
II Europe. The muskrat. otter, iur
seal, and beaver skinf are all dyed, as a
rule. The rich brown color of some seal
iur was, however, accomplished in this
country, and this hair, you remember,
is the inside fur, tnat is obtained by
carefully scraping the skin on the Under
side, thus cutting the roots OF the long
hairs, which then come out, leaving the
fine rlch hair beneath that Is so much
admired.
"FaLcy furs of course bring fancy
prices. and l suppose tina sea otter
might be mentioned as AL. They are
caught on the North Pacific shores,
I've shot them in Japan myself, and
some of the natives there train them to
fish. They lie among the weeds and are
remarkable for their affection for their
young, holding them as a mother does
a baby and carrying them out ID sea on
their backs, tossing then up in the air,
Just as you would a child. The first one
l shot made me feel so badly that /
never tried it again. Here is a skin.
They run about two feet by six IN size.
You see the overhair is exceedingly fine
and silky and silver tips regularly and
naturally arranged. You often see TINS
initiated in cheap iur. The finest skins
bring atout five hundred dollars apiece
and garments from it have been sold
at from one to five thousand dollars. The
rich Chinese and Russians get the cream
of the supply, SO I'm told, The com,
mon otter is a different thing entirely,
and their skins are only worth at best
five dollars; but about forty-tiye thou
sand are used every year by the trade,
to about ~forty-eight thousand of the sea
otter, the latter being rarer.
1.-The marten, or Russian sable, is also
a fancy fur and the trade uses over a
hundred Thousand skins a year, that, if
all were first-class, would be worth, to
first hand S12, 000. 900, supposing that
each skin brings $120 or so, which Is
the best price. But they don't. Still,
at one-thlrd of this there Is mcney IN
them. The overhair is exc eedingly fine,
rich and flowing, oftan three inches
long and of a dark metallic blue tint.
They are all trapped IN Siberia, the best
coming from tue localities about va
kutsk. The Lena, the Amoor, Kams-
chatka and Saghalien furnish others of
a more or less marketable quality.
There are several kinds of mart n.
Here Is what we call a baum. The fur
is rather woody. They come from Eu
rope aud Asia and are not, at the best,
valued owe ten dollars a skin. About
sixty thousand, however, are used year
ly by the trade. One hundred and fifty
thousand stone martens are used and
hoOut OhC AuhdlCN hha AoApJ ehOAo0hd
of the American marten. The latter has
a fine overhair, often two and a half
inches long. The color ranges between
rich coffee brown and tawny yellow.
The AL skins bring about $25, while
the long hairs are i'll great demand for
painters brushes.
The silver fox is in great demand as a
fashionable fur. They are beautiful and
hard to get, although by skirmishjng
around the trappers get together In Eu-
rope and Asia about two thousand every
year, that are taken by the dealers like
not cakes, and it might be said, as of the
Russian sable and otter, that they rank
with diamonds and precious stones. A
good first-class skin about two by four feet
ought to be worth two hundred and fifty
dollars. / sold a set once that was
made into a rug for a gentlem en- in Colo
RADIO that l understood cost him made
up ten thousand dollars. There were
about twenty-five skins in it, with the
tails on the outside. Here is one. You
see, they are a silvery blue and rangei in
tints lust like a sapphire. The hast are