The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-04

If China is opened UP to European
trade a new reservoir of precious furs
will be tapped for New York, Paris and
London. The latter is now the metro
polls of the fur trade, and it is to Lon
don that the greater part of the catch
in North America, Alaska, Siberia and
Australia is brought and collected, UNI
til 1t is dispersed over every country IN
the world in the sales of Sir Charles
Lampson and the Hudson Bay compa-
ny. Hitherto Pekin has been the other
center of the trade, but not rival, be-
cause the millions whom it supplied
We're within what was practically
closed market. All that was good was
absorbed by China, and only few in
ferior skins We're exported, though sea-
borne furs, especially those of the varl-
Gus red, white and 'cross'' foxes, have
always been welcome cargoes. 1t re-
mains to be seen whether the attrac-
ton of London will not draw from Pc
kin at least a share of it's immense
stock. 1t is believed that this will take
place, and that the furs will be export
ed in the finished state, and present to
the west a luxury almost as new as the
original export of Chinese silks or Chi
nese porcelains. There is almost as
much difference between the finished
furs from Pekin, more beautiful than
nature made them, and the raw furs"
in the Hudson Bay sales, in the same
condition as they were stripped from
the dead animal as there is between
spun silk and the same substance in
Pellin furrier excels that of Europe,
there is something in the western pla-
teaus of China peculiarly favorable to
the perfect growth of furs and feathers.
Just as there are half a dozen Chinese
pheasnts which vie in plumage with
the most gorgeous birds of the tropics,
SO even the domestic animals of the
colder provinces seem to develop a
special quality of fur, wool or hair, to
which the delicate processes of the
dressers impart an addedbeauty. Thus
Thibetan lambskin, after it has passed
through the hands of the Chinese cur
riers, becomes a thing of beauty and
| intrinsic excellence hardly exceeded by
| the rarer furs. The leather is as soft
as kid and white as milk, and the fleece
| attached to it takes the texture and
| gloss of white floss silk. Even the
| chow dogs of Manchuria grow true fur
in the winter, and are bred for the sake
| of their coats! while the skins of the
cat and the squirrel from the same
| district deserve a place not among the
| cheaper, but the choicer, grades of fur
Manchuria catskins are as superior tc
those of the specially bred black cats
Of the Bavarian Alps as that Of the
Manchurian tiger is to the coast of its
Indian relative. The reverse is seen ir
Japan, where he mountain districts
yield furs of the smallest size. The
SKIN of Japanese mink, for example
is about one third the size of the large
North American animal of the same
species. The railway and the coming
settlement of the East Manchurian re.
gion will not probably affect this an
cient source of supply to the Pekir
market 1t is the central plains, no.
| the forest-covered Khingan mountains
or those between the Ussuri and the
Sungari valleys, which will feel the eff
feet of civilization.-London Spectator