The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-11-11
THE FURS OF SIBERIA.
SUPPLY NEARING DEPLETION
AND PRICES RISING.

SUPPLY NEARING DEPLETION
AND PRICES RISING.
Marked Increase in the Demand and
Use of Animal Skins-Now the Dec
grafton of Rank and Luxury of
Wealthy.
The chief center of the Siberian fur
trade, including that of the Peninsula
of Kamschatka, is Irkutsk. The
greater part of the fe1ls here collected
from hunters and trappers are bear,
glutton, lynx, elk, reindeer, stag.
musk-dear, fox, sable, marten mink,
ermine, polecat, Squirrel, Alpine wolf,
blue and silver tux and one or two
kinds of wildsat Indigenous to Kams-
chatka. The Siberian black hare is
not now SO often found on the Irku-
tsk market. All kinds of furred skins
have advanced in value during the
last few years. A blue fox fur now
brings about 80 rubies at Irkutsk, and
that figure is enhanced when Fair
of perfect skins are offered, the price
running up to as much as 800 rubies
for the two fells. From Irkutsk the
furs are, in the first instance, caietiy
distributed between the Two fairs at
Kirensk and Vercholensk, and thence
they find their way to the principal
fur marts in western Europe. Many
of the English, French and German
furriers send buyers TO lrkutsK. 1t
has lately been shown, however, that
hr1xy of r.t
in that Siberian center. The most
valuable furs, bought at Irkutsk from
merchants who profess to retain their
own k1nters and trappers, have, as
matter of fact, come through two or
three pairs of bartering hands. 1t
would not be very Difficult. matter
for the western buyers who travel all
the way to Irkutsk to go a little fur
Their, and establish trading relations
at first hand with the trappers ard
trapping syndicates. An enormous
economy would be effected by sucn d.
rect trading.
Siberia, to which the civilized world
chief sources of the fur supply, is be-
ginning, as our Odessa correspondent
informs US, to find that the output TO
longer equals the demand, SO that
during the last few years all kinds
of furred skins have advanced in
price. For ages the lonely forests and
tundras of Siberia offered an ample
protection to host of wild animals,
but the Russian from across the Urals
brought with him, long afterward, the
road and the railway. Communities
tion has become easier, towns have
sprung up, markets have been open
ed; the Cossack has begun to ira
oyede, Ostlak or fungus wandered
undisturbed and skins are freely ex
changed for sundry Injuries from the
white cars land. The usual result
has followed, and in almost every part
of Siberia-as in North America, the
other great fur-producing regioC--
skins and game are alike becoming
perceptibly rarer. Moreover, the TASK
of collecting furs for the market is
more than ever subdivided. Irkutsk
is the chief center of the trade, but
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