The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-18
NO MORE BUFF4IO SKINS.

Wolf and Raccoon for Robes and Coats l A Caribou's Head and Musk OK Skin. | Buffalo skins?" said clerk at a fur
 store in answer to an inquiry by New
 York Sun reporter. They are practi-
 cally out of the market. No new ones
 come in now and the few that we have
 on hand are old ones that find their
 way to the furrier's. The price of a
 good buffalo skin is from fifty to sixty | dollars They used to be made exten- sively into fur coats for driving and
 rough winter travelling, but such a coat
 now is rarely seen except in out-of-the- way northern localities where many old
 ones are still in use. Raccoon skins
 have taken the place of buffalo skins in
 the making of overcoats, but the fur
 coat is not much used now anywhere
 except in Minnesota and the British do-
 minions. There is some demand for fur Things, for which mink and Persian lamb are used, and sometimes Hudson
 Bay sable, which cost from four hum dred to a thousand dollars for coat. As you will readily infer, the buffalo driving robe has become scarce and valuable. The gray wolf skins are more abundant.
 For robes and for ladies' furs the skin of the wolverine, of foxes of all kinds raccoons, the Australian opos- sum of a smooth mouse gray tint, and the young kangaroo, all furnish mate- rial. Almost everything in the way of fur may be used for boas and muffs. Here are some odd skins from the Czars domlnions used in trimmings and Things, the Russian hamster, a kind of marmot yellowish brown of col or, with the under part black, and the Siberian squirrel, gray, with white belly. These are some furs used in trimming" and he pointed out, in an array of samples hanging against the wall, the skins of the wolverine of a rich light brown, the stone marten, blu ish brown, the Persian lamb of nat ural black, the astrakhans, krimmer, and pinhead; the badger, beautiful silver gray with black dashes, and the fisher, a rare fur little darker than sable.
 "This bison's head Is worth one hun dred and sixty dollars" he went on, "These heads of the moose, deer and caribou are merely ornamental features of our place, for the skins scarcely come in our line of stock. But they are worth looking at. Notice the moose's magnificent antlers and that peculiar protuberance above his muzzle. There in the caribou's antlers observe the flat shovel-like prongs that push straight out from their base in front of his fore head. These he uses as shovels to dig away the snow from the plants and mosses he feeds on. He is the Ameri- can reindeer fitted to get his living at all seasons in the far north. Look at his muzzle how it is protected from the cold by fine white hair completely cov- ering it down to the lips. It is the only animal I know of that has this pecu- liarity.
 "We have no head of the musk ox but here is the skin of one which is rare," and the clerk held up a skin, somewhat larger than large sheep skin, covered with long hair, deep brown in color, beneath which was a | wool exceedingly thick and fine Upon the back between the shoulders was a | natural spot of lighter tint. "This skin is worth sixty-five dollars for a | rug" he said. "It came from the Are tic regions-northern Asia, I think"