The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-19
wINsTED's FUR TRADE.
Something Interesting About the Pelts Brought In-Shipped to London and

ooilelllIlS lHleleSliAS ApOuC the TellS
 Brought In-Shipped to London and
 Then Returned to America
 Winsted is the headquarters of the fur business of northwestern Connect icut. There are probably five thousand belts, perhaps on an average many more, sent from here every season to New York. These belts are from foxes, coons wild cats, minks, otters, skunks musk rats and house cats in the main, and occasionally the hides of other fur bearing animals are received. The Wa terbury American correspondent says on the subject:
 E. A. Nellis, the sheriff of Litchfeld county, is the heaviest buyer of fur, but there are other shippers also, but near ly all the furs go direct to the New York market, where, after undergoing treatment, they find their way back to America, and are made up into count less gloves, caps, capes, neck dressings, boas, etc, for the uses of the people. In addition to MT. Nellis, there are about fifteen men, hunters of Winsted, Cole brook, Barkhamsted and Winchester, who shoot through the season and club their belts together and box them, selling them in New York on their own account Then sportsmen make Min CTS meat market headquarters, and when the season is closed the walls of that market resemble room of the Northwest Fur company in British America, for the array of wild cat, fox, COW and other skins is quite imposing and is well worth visit.
 There are no bears in Connecticut, xx,sI . plenty enough on the other side of the Hudson river in the Catskill mountains, where many bears are annually killed. Neither are there any black or silver gray foxes. Newspapers occasionally chronicle the shooting of silver gray fox, but there are none in the state, although there are plenty of common gray foxes all over Litchfield county The difference between a silver gray fox is very great, and especially is this so when it comes to valuation. A common gray fox is only worth from 60 to 75 cents, while a silver gray is worth from $25 to $100 each, according to con- dition of pelt. The same is true of the black fox valuation. Both kinds of these foxes are very rare, and the fur is so fine that when the pelt is hung up the fur will droop down in whatever direction the body hangs. It is the silky fineness of their fur which makes the hides of silver gray and black foxes so valuable.
 Hang a silver gray up by the head and his fur will, of course, hang down, so will that of a red fox or common gray fox, but hang the silver gray fox up by the heels and his fur will also droop down, because it Is too fine to hang any other way A red fox's fur is strong enough to hang in its natural way, no matter whether the body hangs natural or not And that Is why fur buyers canont be deceived in buying fox skins. It often happens that amateur hunters who knock over common gray foxes think they have got a rich prize, and only find out their mistake when they go to a fur buyer and expect to get $50 for fox hide and only receive fifty or seventy-five cents.
 Experienced hunters know the differ ence. Once in a while a man will tote in a lot of fox hides with black fox pelt among them. But fur buyers know that black foxes arc very rare, and an inspection often reveals the fact that the hunter has only a common red fox, which he himself has dyed black. The game, of. course, does not work, and he is obliged to take the ordinary price for a red fox-$1. .25-for his pelt. So far as is known only one genuine silver gray fox his been killed in Connecticut in ten years and that was killed several years since near the New York state line, over in sharon, or near sharon. i Common gray foxes are plenty enough, and are worth less than red foxes. Coons, minks, otters, skunks, musk rats and wildcats are quite plenty, and house cats and rabbits are more than plenty. Skunks are of several colors, the black skunk being the most valua-
 ble. The following is the list of prices and quotations for skins in this market: Raccoons, 10 to 90 cents; minks, 10 cents | to $1.75; red fox, 15 cents to $1.50; gray | fox, 10 cents to 50 cents; skunks, 15 | cents to $1; muskrats, cents to 1G cents; kittens, ? cents; oter, $2 to $S; | wildcats, 15 to 35 cents; house cats, col | ors, 5 cents; pure black, 25 cents; silver | fox, $25 to $100; black fox not quoted | cross fox, between red and silver, S | to $10; lynx, s1 to $2.50; bears, beavers | wolves, not quoted. Price in all cases
 is regulated by the condition of the l pelt. An animal with thin fur of with | pelt shot full of holes is not so valuable | as one with thick, full fur, and with
 pelt uninjured. For two years MT. Nel | lis has bought the bodies of wildcats
 and paid $5 apiece for them. They were
 sent to Boston and were dissected by
 scientists, and in other instances the
 cats were mounted The demand has
 now ceased, and only extremely large
 cats in god condition are bought at that
 price.