The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-12-05
ChINCHILLA FUR is COSTLY.
Much of II Is Shipped to the United
States from south
America.


A steamer arrived in New York a
few days ago which had as part of her
cargo many thousand chinchilla skins.
They were in the raw, or incurred, con-
dition, and under the existing tariff
laws came in free of duty. The little
skins were packed in bales, and no
one who saw the unclean bits of fur
would have thought that the curing
process could transform them into
handsome blue gray pieces of fur, for
which large prices may be easily real
lied, says the New York Tribune
The chinchilla fur is used for trim
ming and in the manufacture of muffs
and boas. The real article comes from
Bolivia, but the market is always well
supplied with imitation chinchilla,
which has the soft gray color with a
blue tinge when it is new, but soon be-
comes dull and coarse and devoid of
the qualities which make the chinchilla
valuable.
At one establishment it was said
in answer to a question as to the price
VI INC lhl VIA II btDtlutu tlilItlN Oh
the quality, and while some skins We're
well paid for at six dollars a dozen
others were cheap at SIS apiece. A
mutf of medium size takes six or eight
skins, and when these are of superior
quality the completed article is sold
for from $3.50 to 5000. A cape now in
the concerns workshop will contain
about 60 skins, and, although it is
small garment, will cost 81 200. The
| common chinchilla-Chinchil lani-
gera-is a rodent of the squirrel fam
lily. 1t has large ears and it's tail is
| about one-half the length of the head
| and body, the latter measuring about
ten inches. The fur is soft and of
delicate pearly gray. The tail is usual
ly black, with light bands. The fur on
the fully developed animal is about one
inch long. The species inhabits the
higher Andes. but is most abundant in
Bolivia, where the animal lives in bur
rows. They form large companies and
go abroad in the daytime, but usually
keep in the shadow of the rocks. They
run like mice, but when they feed they
| sit up like squirrels and grasp their
food between the forepaws. The re-
| gions which the chinchilla inhabits are
| lonely and barren, with little vegeta-
ton, and in many places Astounding in
almost perpendicular rock formation.
| The little animals scamper up and
down these steep places with great
| rapidity, and because of their speed
have been mistaken for flying squir-
| rels. The natives hunt them with the
| aid of species of weasel, which enters
| the burrows and drives the occupants
| into the hands of the hunters.
There is a short-tailed species in
Peru-Chinchilla brevcaudala-which
is larger and has shorter ears and tail.
| Cuvier's hinchilla-Lagidium Cuvieri
is a species which is larger than
either of the Others the length of the
head and body varying from 16 to 90
inches and that of the tail from II to IL
inches. 1t has four toes on each foot.
while the common chinchilla has four
| toes on the hind feet and five on the
| fore feet.
There are several specimens of the
| common chinchilla at the New York
Geological park, but they are such
small creatures that the visitors would
not notice them unless they were
| pointed out.
Of the many thousand skins of the
common chinchilla that have been re-
ceived in the United States this sea-
son the great majority were of the
medium and low grades, and the large
| importations will have no effect on the
price of the first quality article. Like
sable, chinchilla trimming is not with
in the reach of the woman of moderate
means. The trimming for black vel
vet costume which was made last sea-
| son from selected skins cost in raw
material nearly $500, land this" said
| the dressmaker, was nothing extraor-
binary and did not include the muff
| and boa that were made to go with the
costume"